Once an Assassin, Always an Assassin
by OneWanderingMind
Summary: For some, happiness just isn't in the cards. Some oaths can't be escaped. Sara may have dodged the consequences before, but dragging her new girlfriend into the mix adds a new layer of complexity. She doesn't want to kill again, but what if it's the only thing keeping Felicity alive? Sara / Felicity pairing.
1. Kidnapped

_I do not own Arrow or any of its beautiful characters. I just borrow them to entertain myself and others._

__*Note added from later chapter: Just a note, my interpretation of Sara might be a bit different from the Sara on Arrow. When I started this, I didn't really have any idea how she would interact with other characters- especially Felicity. I'm going to proceed with my original vision of her rather than conform to the tv version. Keep that in mind as you read as she might appear a little OOC.__

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><p>Muffled pleas pelted her sensitive eardrums as consciousness begrudgingly coaxed her five senses back to life. Felicity struggled to yank open her eyes while her thoughts clawed at stifling cobwebs clinging to her brain. Slowly, her immediate surroundings mentally came into focus. A warm and frantic pressure danced across her cheeks and trailed through her hair. As light peeked through her cracked eyelids, mumbles morphed into panicked words.<p>

"Please, please, please Felicity! Wake up! Please wake up!"

Although her open eyes were greeted by a thick fog, a wave of relief washed over her as she identified the movement against her skin: hands. The two hands that offered hope in even the direst of circumstances. _Which I appear to be in not so great circumstances. Well. Glad my brain isn't defective. Now for the lungs._ Inhaling to rush oxygen through her system, an unfamiliar smell of fish and damp wood tickled her olfactory senses.

A frightening thought flew from her lips and she whispered, "This is _so_ not my house."

"Felicity!" The aforementioned hands desperately clamped both sides of her face.

Smiling despite her fuzzy vision, the blonde opened her mouth to speak, but two lips smashed against her own. When Felicity's eyes fluttered closed and lips parted in pleasure, the unexpected taste of salt pricked her tongue. _Tears_. Now on the brink of panic, she escaped the kiss with a wiggle. Her eyes snapped open to blue eyes glowing with relief, but stained with fear and regret. _Regret? Why is there regret?_ Although not a foreign look, Felicity had never seen that intense stare thrown in her direction.

Flooded with concern, she grazed a thumb across a tear stained cheek and queried gently, "What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?" The last question leapt from her throat as a tiny squeak.

A chuckle and a smile followed by a light kiss served as her response. The face disappeared into a blur as it pulled away and a husky voice let out a small, bemused sigh, "Oh, Felicity. You're worried about me, not yourself? Waking up in a strange place doesn't bother you?"

Not amused by the lighthearted tone, the blonde carefully maneuvered herself into a sitting position despite her shaky limbs. Diagnosing the haze as the lack of glasses and contacts, she grumbled at her inability to survey her surroundings. Blobs of color all around told her very little. Despite the handicap, she could clearly make out the freckled face now devoid of the smile she loved so much. Once again, she brushed a thumb against the wet skin and asked, "Sara, are you okay?"

"I'm so sorry," the other blonde breathed reluctantly as she raised one of Felicity's hands to her lips. After caressing the top with her thumb, she twisted her wrist and lightly kissed her palm. She stared down at the pale hand and repeated painfully, "I'm so sorry, Felicity."

Completely confused, the other woman shook her head and queried quickly, "Why? What did you do? Did you break something" The IT nerd shifted into a babble, "What did you break? I told you to be careful around the computers. Did you—"

"Felicity," Sara's finger on her mouth truncated the bundle of questions. "We've been kidnapped," she stated hesitantly, never taking her eyes off the flustered girl.

Snorting, Felicity responded, "The Black Canary doesn't get kidnapped."

"You're right," a female voice interrupted the two girls. Only able to see a dark figure, the blonde squinted in its direction as the woman explained, "She followed of her own accord when her girlfriend was snatched from her bed."

"Perturbed British voice," the blonde noted aloud. "Doesn't ring a bell." While racking her memory for the owner of the voice, the reality of the situation suddenly took hold. "Why was I kidnapped?" she asked both her captor and her girlfriend.

"Because your girlfriend thinks she is above the laws. She is gravely mistaken."

Sara cradled Felicity's hands between her own and admitted with that regret Felicity spotted floating behind her eyes moments before, "I thought they would let me go. I trusted her." As despair crept across her girlfriend's face, the assassin clenched the now trembling hands and apologized yet again, "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have trusted her."

Trying to piece together the somewhat disjointed statements, the other woman replied, "Her as in the 'her' that poisoned Laurel and kidnapped your mom? Please say no—" Sara's slow nod downward punctured the small hope that this didn't have anything to do with the League of Assassins.

"Nyssa," Sara confirmed.

"Your ex," Felicity further expounded upon the shittiness of the situation.

"The woman who saved her life and instilled in her the strength to survive. The woman she loved and who loved her," the Heir to the Demon twisted the knife.

"Nyssa, please," Sara exclaimed as she jerked her gaze from her frazzled girlfriend to her taunting ex. "Give me a moment."

"A what?" Felicity didn't like the sound of that. "People say 'give me a moment' when they are about to leave." Her hands crept up Sara's arms as she whispered her name, "Sara…"

Wrapping the woman in a hug, Sara said with tears in her eyes, "I have to go with her. It's the only way."

"You're leaving? No! You can't!" Felicity yanked herself from her girlfriend's embrace. For a moment, she hated Sara. How dare she strut into her life only to abandon her now?

"Don't hate me," the woman begged as she easily read the emotion in her girlfriend's eyes. "Felicity," Sara stressed with certainty, "I love you. I'm coming back."

The other woman's jaw slackened at the three little words Sara had never said to her. She heard a metal door squeak open and saw a hand rip Sara from her sight by the hair. "Sara!" she screamed into the abyss of colors as she stumbled to her feet and hobbled in her direction. "Don't take her, please!"

She heard Sara yell, "Felicity! Stop! Don't chase—" A fist smashing against Felicity's temple darkened her vision and silenced her girlfriend's screams as she crumpled to the ground in a heap.

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><p><em>Random idea that popped into my head after the "Heir to the Demon" episode. May or may not be worth continuing. Of course, the nerd and the assassin need to be paired up. If I continue, the past build up between the two will be fleshed out along with the present kidnapping. In reality, it will start right at the end of S2E13.<em>

_Let me know what you think._


	2. Decisions

_Rating is "T", but includes strong language. Thanks to those who are following and who have reviewed. It's very encouraging to hear from you. Feedback feeds my writing bug._

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><p>After several doors between her and Felicity slammed shut, Sara steadied her breathing and calmed the frantic emotions within her. Stillness fed strength. Nyssa's fingers snaked around her upper arm like a vice. When Sara caught sight of the smirk playing across the woman's lips, her anger flared. With one swift motion, she yanked at the woman's thumb and bent her wrist backward. As the smirk twisted into a small cringe, the blonde flattened her palm and smacked her captor across the face.<p>

"You promised that you wouldn't hurt her," Sara exclaimed. Nyssa lifted her hand to her stinging cheek in dismay. Neither of them had ever laid hands on each other in that way. Slapping with an open hand to the face conveyed a personal malice. The frail gesture barked words of insult rather than inflicted physical pain. They were assassins, not women of unbridled passion.

"I knew you were different," Nyssa offered as she discarded the look of surprise and donned a harsh look of displeasure. "We do not throw control to the wind and stoop to such levels." Not at all bothered by Sara's narrowed eyes and flaring nostrils, she loomed over the woman and concluded, "We do not insult one another in this way!"

With no intention of letting her ex gain a height advantage, she matched Nyssa's step forward with her own step back. The blonde sneered, "Do we lie to each other now? You said that you wouldn't hurt her."

"I have no intention of hurting her. However, I make no promises on behalf of those watching over her."

"You bitch!" Sara yelped. Although not one to fling curse words at others, the emotions of a twenty year old rushed to the surface. Years of captivity, training and murder stole the early years of her twenties. College girl foolishness drowned beneath fear and desperation on the island. Off the island, her former self with all its innocence and aimlessness fell victim to the indoctrination of the League. Over the past several months, Felicity had uncovered fragments of her childish ways- the words and actions of a typical twenty six year old. "You fucking bitch!"

"What has she done to you?" Nyssa asked with a tone of dismay. "Has this girl actually managed to devolve you into a pitiful woman in only a few months?"

"Because I fucking curse?" Sara spat.

"We treat each other with respect," a finger wagged in front of Sara's face. "Respect, Sara. We are a part of a highly regarded and rightfully feared band of equals. Loyalty, obedience and _respect_ define us as individuals." Nyssa's speech fell on deaf ears. Sara's pursed lips, tightly set jaw and dead blue eyes deflated the words as they marched from her mouth as a lecture. The raven haired assassin gulped back her own wounded feelings. This stubborn woman rendered her utterly defenseless at times. She detested those hollow blue orbs as much as a target who couldn't fight back. "Sara…" her ex-girlfriend's name slipped out gently, "I'm not your enemy; I'm your only advocate. Let us come to an understanding. Please."

"No, Nyssa," Sara knew that tone all too well. Nyssa reserved that pitch and cadence for a wounded Sara- broken, misguided and afraid. "Speak to me as an equal, not as a dying canary."

"Fight for us," the other woman commanded.

Avoiding the statement, the blonde insisted, "You released me. Why am I here?"

"My father disapproved of my thoughtless decision to free you from your oath. Malcolm Merlyn taught him a lesson and Starling City paid the price."

"I'm not Merlyn! I want to be happy, not cripple half of a city."

"She will be tortured," Nyssa snapped matter-of-factly. "Every day that you do not submit, she will be tortured and you will watch. She will neither see you nor hear you." As Sara began to shrink into a shell of horror, the woman continued with a hint of pleasure, "After a few weeks, I'll tell her that you escaped and abandoned her. After a couple of months of pain and betrayal, I'm sure she'll make a prime candidate for a member of the League. I'll forge her hatred of you into a cruel propensity to kill those who abandon their loved ones. All of us have our own personal vendettas." Nyssa easily caught the open hand sailing toward her cheek. "Not a second time," she threw down Sara's hand.

The blonde's arm fell limp at her side. The dead weight tugging at her shoulder echoed the despair jerking at her heart strings. Once again, she must blindly kill for "honor". Out of "loyalty", she would take lives and linger to glimpse the heartbreak of those left behind. The images of weeping and wailing mothers and children contorted her face into a grimace.

"Whose soul will it be?" Nyssa asked. Recalling Sara's plea on the rooftop to cherish what tiny unblemished grains of her soul that she still possessed, she painted with blood red strokes the choice the Canary must make. "Shall I corrupt hers? Or will you give up what little you have left?"

Sara blinked back a tear and forced the muscles in her face to hide the turmoil within. With the control of a calculated killer, she replied smoothly, "I'll kill for Ra's _and_ I'll keep my soul."

"Wise decision, Sara."

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><p>"Bad decision, Oliver!" Felicity announced from a few yards away. Sara spun around to face the shocked woman when Ollie pushed her from his arms. Felicity's eyes bounced between the blonde's leather jacket and shirt, which had been tossed aside in a moment of lust. Before either of the guilty looking parties could protest, the IT nerd smashed her eyes shut and waved two open hands demanding silence from the two. "I repeat: bad decision! Physical and emotional trauma intensifies shit leading to <em>bad decisions<em>." Tossing aside her less than unbiased therapist coat, she stormed toward the three glowing monitors offering a slightly apologetic, "Sorry, not my business. Not my business at all."

Unsure as to why she felt so ashamed, Sara avoided Oliver's gaze and snatched up her shirt and jacket. Trying to conjure some type of response that didn't reek of petty embarrassment, the blonde slid on her clothes, smoothed out a couple of creases in the cotton shirt and situated her hair evenly around her shoulders and across her back.

Her mouth opened, but Felicity chided them once again with her typical lack of flair. "Sara, not sure what happened to you, but Oliver here just found out that his mom is seriously a piece of work." Shrugging into the temporarily abandoned therapist coat, she spun around and faced two deer in the headlights and stalked forward with hand motions and varying tones of voice, "Granted, you guys have history, but let's think back to how that started. Oh! Cheating- what a beautiful beginning to a long and fruitful relationship."

"Felicity," Oliver offered a small warning glazed with irritation, but dripping with guilt.

"No, sir," the blonde raised a finger and glared at him over the rim of her glasses. "This actually _is_ my business. I have to deal with you for umpteen hours a day. When you're cranky, I get cranky. When you're all gung-ho about justice and stuff, I'm filled with glee over slouching over keyboards and typing for hours on end." She took a breath. Just one breath. "So if you embark on an emotionally crippling rollercoaster with someone who A: is in no condition to date slash sleep with slash be happy with anyone and B: you actually care about, I'm going to be surrounded by blind happiness followed closely by angst and finally falling victim to the inevitable heartbreak."

"Felicity," Sara attempted to chime in, but was cut short instantly.

"Look, I get it. There's the history and you're hot and he's hot." Without thinking, she glanced at Ollie and noted with understanding, "I've seen her boobs. I totally get it." When Oliver and Sara exchanged a look of discomfort and amusement respectively, the blonde's face reddened and she blurted an explanation, "You know when she got cut by the sword and you had to stitch up her back and I handed her a shirt. They were just there so I saw them… accidentally… for two seconds." Now two pairs of eyes landed on her crimson face, bugged out eyes and flapping jaw. "Maybe for five seconds, but it wasn't intentional. Honestly. Really. Shit." Her embarrassment overwhelmed every other impulse and she bolted toward the exit without looking back. "Bad decision!" she yelled over her shoulder.

Sara burst out laughing while Oliver wore the usual look of confusion he sported whenever Felicity plunged into one of her rants. Disregarding every accusation flung in her direction by the retreating woman, the blonde assassin asked with amusement, "Is she always that cute when she rambles?"

"I wouldn't call that a ramble," the befuddled man replied. Teetering between acknowledging the truth in Felicity's words and yielding to his frustration with his jealous friend, he said, "That's not the first time she's said something that brings out her jealous side."

"Oh, you think she likes you?" Sara teased. She was grateful for the temporary distraction from her current family drama. "Drama" was the dismissive way to put it. Truly, the blonde was going to be water boarded by Laurel until her sister finally decided to forgive her. However, in this moment, she joked with her former lover, "Maybe she likes me. I mean, she likes my boobs."

Going along with the lighthearted banter, the vigilante responded, "If she wasn't so taken with me, she would be safer for you than a jaded assassin."

"Her novel long rants might be as dangerous as an arrow."

"They do leave a mark," Ollie agreed with a nod and a small smile.

Sara could see a speech forming in her friend's brain and decided to head him off with a simple admission, "I think she's right, Ollie. I got caught up in a moment. Let's not go there."

Actually relieved that he didn't have to speak first, he agreed, "You're right. We're both a little raw."

"Ex-girlfriends showing up and kidnapping your mother tends to do that." She tilted her head to the side and added, "And resurrecting yourself in front of your family leads to—"

"Bad decisions," Oliver sighed.

Sara grinned broadly for the first time in weeks as she noted, "I think I'm gonna like that girl."

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><p>"Lots of throbbing," Felicity mumbled rolling onto her side and blinking her eyes. "Still alive." She flailed her arm forward and when her fingers brushed against metal, she trailed her fingers around a bar and noted with a groan, "In a damn barred cell, I'm assuming."<p>

"Very observant, Weak One," a man replied sarcastically.

"Excuse me?" Felicity shifted her weight and raised herself off the wooden floor. "Did you just nickname me 'Weak One'? Because that's terribly rude and unfounded."

With a scoff, the man continued, "You paw at your lover as if she is the only thing keeping you alive. You lack inner strength. So yes, I will be calling you 'Weak One'."

"Well, that's not gonna fly if you're going to be standing guard over me 24/7," the blonde pushed herself to her feet and carefully stomped toward the figure of a tall man. She hoped that standing after being drugged, kidnapped and pelted in the head might dent his label of her character.

"Then for both of our sakes, I hope I will be relieved of my post in the near future."

Suppressing the urge to bombard the man with questions about Sara, she asked, "Are there any glasses or contacts around here? And they need to be a strong prescription because I'm legally blind. Crazy right? I can totally see, but I'm technically blind." Her own glasses shoved into her hands halted her drivel. "These are mine!" she exclaimed happily.

"Do you make a habit of narrating your life?"

After situating her glasses on her face, she replied to the tall, olive skinned man, "Wanna switch to 'Chatty One'?"

"No one is going to save you," he bluntly responded. "Wit will not save you. Neither the Canary nor the Arrow will save you. You're alone."

"You sure can light up a room, Grumpy," Felicity commented with an awkward gesture typically used to convey her sarcastic statements.

"We'll see how long you can sustain that humor."

Gulping, the blonde masked her fear with a threat of perpetuating irritation for her ill-mannered guard, "I hope you're stuck with me for a very long time."

A knife whistled past only inches from her head and lodged itself into the wooden planks on the back wall. While she struggled to control her breathing and muffle a high pitched whine of terror, the short tempered man whispered with bile, "Make no mistake, I will kill you. So curb your tongue and tread lightly."

Felicity cleared her throat and said, "Part of me thinks you have orders to keep me alive, but the bigger part of me that's growing bigger by the second thinks that you don't follow orders very well." Narrowed eyes in response prompted a quick follow up, "So, I'm gonna shut up. For now. Wait. I'm hungry. Am I getting starved out or is food a part of this whole kidnapping thing?"

Her captor grumbled and asked before walking away, "Will you grant me a few moments of peace while you eat?"

The blonde saluted, "Can do, Grumpy."

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><p><em>For the record, I detest flashbacks, but it goes along with the format of the show so I'm hopping on the flashback wagon. I hope you enjoyed it :)<em>


	3. Realization

_Hello again! Glad you're still reading!_

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><p>A knock on her father's front door interrupted Sara's focus on doing nothing whatsoever. She rolled her eyes and girded her loins for whoever she discovered on the other side of the door. <em>Oliver or Laurel<em>. She didn't have the energy to converse or fight with either of them. Although a week had gone by since the Nyssa encounter, Sara still appreciated the peace and quiet. Her father kissed her on the forehead before he went to work and when he got home, but apart from that, he kindly left her to her own devices.

She slipped one of her dad's old sweatshirts over her head, yanked her sweatpants up to her waist and quickly pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail. How low the mighty have fallen. With a deep inhale, she gripped the door handle and hesitantly pulled it open. "Felicity!" she exclaimed with surprise.

"Yeah, I know," the blonde glided past the befuddled woman and began, "I'm really sorry for my outburst the other day. I'm not usually all judgy and borderline bitchy."

"It was kind of bitchy," Sara replied with a hint of a smile as she swung the door closed. This visit was going to be a different type of exhausting.

"I know," Felicity faced her host, nudged her glasses and continued, "I was worried about Oliver and I freaked out verbally. Usually I can contain the crazy."

"It's okay to protect your friend," Sara paused and added, "even if it's the wrong place and the wrong time."

"I'm not so good at selecting settings."

"Hence you storming into my dad's house. How did you know I was here anyway?"

"Pffftt, please," the blonde chuckled with a hint of condescension, "have you met me?"

Shaking her head in amusement, Sara returned, "Fair enough, although why seek me out when you could just wait for me to show up—"

"At the Arrow cave? It's not a cave, obviously, but 'lair' makes it sound dingy. Actually, 'cave' lends to an archaic type of atmosphere. Shit. I don't have a good name for the damn place."

_How does Oliver not melt with all the cuteness? _"Do you ever stop talking?" Sara asked.

Not accustomed to the playful tone in response to her babble, Felicity stumbled, "Well. No—I mean, yes. Dig and Oliver tend to cut me off, because I spiral into a whole lot of nothing if I'm not stopped." The blonde leaned forward to study Sara's face and her brow creased, "Are you smiling?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" the other blonde replied as her lips spread even wider across her face.

"It's weird. I'm mostly around Dig and Oliver so smiles are a bit hard to come by. Plus, you don't seem like the most joyful person in the world." Felicity threw in the last sentence flippantly.

"Because I kill people?" Sara's pink bubble of happiness popped with the statement.

"I mean, you have," Felicity replied quietly. "I'd think joy would be the last emotion dancing around in there." She motioned in a circle with a finger pointed at Sara's head.

"It's not the most common feeling," the assassin admitted. Desperately wanting to steer away from the impending 'woe is Sara' exchange, the blonde circled back, "You still haven't explained why you're here."

With raised eyebrows, Felicity spoke as if the answer was obvious, "To apologize. I thought that was clear."

"I got that, but why now?"

Pacing back and forth, the woman explained, "I thought about it and I knew that I was worried about Oliver, but I was thrown for a loop when I realized I was worried about you too. I pelted Oliver for details about your family, flipped out that you died for a few seconds and asked what happened after I ran the hell away."

"What did he tell you?" More than a little discomfort peppered her query.

"Not much," Felicity assured the blonde with a shrug. "He isn't the most talkative guy."

"This is true."

"Neither are you, actually. I mean, not the most talkative girl… or woman… or gal," the nerd shook her head trying to shake off the constant need to fill space with words. She couldn't help but squeeze in one last thing, "Whichever you prefer. I swear I'm going to stop now."

Sara's jaw dropped as sentences—lengthy emotional sentences—threatened to spill out and into the lap of this very odd blonde woman. She snapped her mouth closed and opened it only to say, "You're right. I'm not extremely verbose."

With an understanding nod, Felicity said, "As much as I want to ask about your family, I'm just glad to see that you're okay. Well," she glanced at Sara's 'outfit', "okay-ish. You may be disheveled, but you're still here."

Tugging at the faded blue sweatshirt, Sara replied, "I'm comfortable, not disheveled."

"If you say so," Felicity smirked.

Sara took a step toward her guest and assured her, "I will want to talk about all of this. Just not now." The woman hoped saying that out loud would make it true.

"And probably not with me," the other woman quickly amended, "which is totally fine."

"Thanks for caring," Sara offered sweetly.

"Sara! I know you're here!" A voice boomed into the house as the front door slammed. Laurel appeared two seconds later and stomped into the living room where Felicity and Sara stood. Taken aback by Oliver's friend's presence, she exclaimed, "So you'll talk to _that_ girl, but not to me or mom?"

"Felicity," the blonde girl in question corrected with a hand wave. "I'm Felicity."

"Laurel," Sara stressed keeping a low tone.

"Don't 'Laurel' me! Talk to me! She needs to go and you need to talk."

"That's my cue," Felicity conceded as she slinked toward the exit.

"No, stay," Sara demanded. Despite the commanding tone, Felicity easily read the desperation in her eyes. For a brief moment, she considered staying, but the daggers shooting from Laurel's eyes chased her out the door as quickly as she had swept in.

The assassin's face fell as her only 'friend' retreated without a backward glance. Swallowing the hurt, she leveled her gaze at her sister and waited for the barbs.

"I want to know why. I know that I said I knew the answers, but I need to know. Tell me," Laurel's voice descended to a normal speaking level.

Not sure where to begin and what to leave out, Sara stated simply, "I'm not who I used to be."

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><p>"Hey Grumpy!" Felicity called out from the corner of the eight foot by eight foot cell. "Do I get a blanket or a mat or a cot or anything at all to sleep on?"<p>

Emerging from the shadows, the disgruntled assassin replied, "This is not a five star hotel, Weak One. Comfort should be the last thing on your mind."

"It is," the blonde corrected him, "It's the last thought I have before going to sleep, which I can't do on splintered wood. I hate to break it to you, but I'm used to a bed: a tempurpedic mattress. So this is a huge departure from the norm in the sleeping arrangement department."

"Fine," the man conceded in a huff. He swung open the cell door and knelt in front of the cold and tired girl.

"I don't see a blanket et cetera in your hands," Felicity said nervously.

"Don't worry," he snarled. "I have something to help you sleep." His fingers wrapped around her throat and he plunged a large needle into her neck.

As her vision narrowed, she weakly groaned, "Not again."

After what felt like minutes, Felicity jolted at the sound of a bang on the metal bars. "The fuck?" she mumbled through her grogginess. Her hands clamped over her ears as the rhythmic pounding continued.

"Wake up, Princess," her favorite assassin shouted. "Dinner is served."

When the noise stopped, she slowly removed the flesh shields from her ears and rolled to her left. To her dismay, her body clunked to the ground and she winced through her clenched teeth, "Dammit!" She opened her eyes and actually smiled at the sight of a cot. "That explains the fall," she chirped. "Where did that come from?" she asked her guard. "I thought your version of 'sleep' was a very potent serum in the blood stream."

"It seems that the Canary still has Ra's daughter wrapped around her little finger despite her obstinacy regarding recommitting herself to the order."

"She's still alive," Felicity sighed with relief. She hadn't asked because she was afraid of the answer. Although clueless as to Sara's whereabouts, it was enough to know that she still lived.

"Of course she's alive. If she dies, you'll follow her to the grave. You're of no use to the League if the Canary is dead."

"Comforting as always," she smirked. "Food!" she crawled over to the small bowl of soup. "It's still warm."

"Again with stating the obvious."

"Thanks, Grumpy. I almost think you care."

"Don't get your hopes up. You've been out for almost sixteen hours. I didn't want to risk causing any permanent damage."

"Because you care," she reiterated before tipping the bowl backward and savoring the warm liquid as it rushed over her tongue. She asked between sips, "Is there a chance you might tell me where I am or maybe your name? I don't think you want me calling you 'Grumpy' all the time."

"My name does not concern you," he said sternly. "Rely on your senses and you'll figure out where you are."

"Holy crap, are you trying to Yoda me?"

He raised an eyebrow and queried in return, "Do you want to be permanently branded with the name 'Weak One'? Do something yourself."

Rolling her eyes at his master-like tone, she closed her eyes and concentrated on individual things as she noticed them. "I smell fish, which I did when I first woke up." She paused and listened intently, "I hear lots of stomping above us so there is clearly a second floor."

"What else?" her captor prompted quietly. "Don't speak. Feel."

"This is getting creepy," Felicity muttered under her breath before silencing both her voice and facetious thoughts. Breathing slowly in and out, she muffled the pounding above her head and stared at the floor. After a few seconds past, she noticed a small roll to the right followed by a slow tilt to the left. "We're rocking." She held her breath to confirm her suspicion before she glanced up at the man and triumphantly declared, "We're on a ship."

"That we are."

"You're not going to tell me where we're going are you?" she asked in a defeated, but knowing tone.

"Right again."

"You're also still not going to tell me your name."

"You're catching on."

"What about an explanation as to why a ship and not a plane? Doesn't your boss know that ships are slightly inefficient when it comes to transporting people?"

"Ra's al Ghul is in no hurry. Ships allow for time," the man sank down on the other side of the cage.

"Time for what?" Felicity polished off the rest of the soup and shuffled a few feet away from the strange man who offered nuggets of knowledge but eagerly sprinkled in disparaging tidbits of despair.

"Time for people to come to their senses, to reaffirm that life is grey, not black and white." He stood abruptly and cleared his throat, "Time for people to realize what's truly important."

"You're obviously referring to my girlfriend," Felicity commented. "She's trapped on this ship too." Her eyes lit up with realization as she talked through her assumptions, "I'm being held hostage on the same freaking boat so she'll do whatever the hell Nyssa tells her to." She jumped to her feet and stormed to the bars seething, "I'm leverage. I'm being kept alive while she's reprogrammed to be the cold killer she used to be, the person she hates!"

"To keep you alive."

"Will that matter in months when she's right back where she was a few years ago? All murdery and angry and shit. How will me being alive help her then?"

Intrigued by the strength and rage fuming from his prisoner, the man offered a token of good will, "You can call me Cain."

"Don't distract me from my angry ranting. I don't take kindly to being used especially not as hostage to 'convince' Sara to drink the Kool-Aid again under threat of me being tortured or whatever else." With no change in the man's features, Felicity asked bluntly, "You do know that Cain doesn't carry such a great connotation, right?"

"It was deemed fitting by Ra's, since I've killed a brother."

"Oh. Well," the woman shifted uncomfortably while saying, "I would have gone with Romulus. That's a much cooler story. I mean, the dude has an entire civilization named after him."

"I'll take that up with Ra's when I see him next," Cain unconsciously responded lightly.

"Funny guy," Felicity replied. "I might like you if you hadn't punched me and drugged me. Oh and thrown a knife at my head as a 'warning'."

"Shall I do it again?" the man asked harshly reaching for a knife strapped to his thigh.

"Nope," the word popped off her lips. "We're good. I consider myself good and warned."

* * *

><p><em>Feel free to let me know if you'd prefer more flashbacks. I'm planning on it being fairly even between present and past for awhile, then heavy on the present. I'm always open to feedback when it comes to the amount of content.<em>


	4. Distrust

_Good day! I'm happy to give you another chapter. _

* * *

><p>Sara paced back and forth with her eyes trained on four large computer monitors mounted on the wall. Two of the screens captured two different angles inside an office, while the other two cycled through several images of cameras in other places throughout a building. She shoved the Bluetooth ear bud further into her ear as if it would amplify the sound picked up by the bug in her target's office. <em>Yet another call about this Trixie girl<em>. Apparently, a busty brunette escort was becoming quite a headache for her boss. Skimming money wasn't sitting well with him. Sara chuckled at his misery. Soon, a single prostitute holding back a bit of his profits would be the least of his worries. In fact, it wouldn't be a worry at all. Dead men have no worries.

Nyssa had selected the perfect target to reel her back into the League. She found it hard to pity an abusive white collar pimp. Turning down the chance to rid society of another disgusting criminal sex trafficker proved to be impossible. Also, Felicity caged below deck further fueled her boiling anticipation to carry out the kill. Momentarily distracted from her surveillance, she cursed under her breath and swatted an empty plate and cup off a nearby table. Why wouldn't Nyssa let her go? Sara already renewed her vow and had gone a week with little sleep as she meticulously mapped out her strategy. It was done. She was back.

The moment she discovered Felicity's apartment in shambles, she knew that she had lost her. Whoever snatched her from her bed didn't even try to mask her disappearance as a simple runaway. Although the condition of the bed itself showed no signs of a struggle, Felicity's newly renovated office had been turned upside down and the damage to her living room resembled the aftermath of an earthquake. The absence of a struggle pointed directly to an "incapacitate and snatch". Sara had executed at least a dozen with precision, although she never touched a thing in the house. She was like a ghost.

Something wasn't adding up. She yanked the headset from her ear and tossed it next to a keyboard. As she stormed out of her quarters, she prepared herself for another confrontation with Nyssa. Their last conversation had been anything but amiable, which was out of the ordinary. Typically, their differences of opinion remained civil but threatening Felicity awakened an animalistic protectiveness. When Sara tipped over the edge into a pit of rage, Nyssa responded the way any archer would to a full frontal attack: pelt the enemy with arrows.

Armored for another verbal and hopefully not physical conflict, Sara swung open the door to the assassin's room. Before she could speak, the other woman spun around and smiled. "Sara," Nyssa greeted the blonde warmly. Sara momentarily cringed at the familiarity of the sound of the woman's voice. However, when the raven haired assassin smiled, she couldn't help but feel slightly at ease. Nyssa's body language and voice reminded her of home or what was her home for years. For a moment, she imagined the twin bed in the corner was instead a king size platform bed with deep purple silk sheets.

"Nyssa, why is Felicity still here?" Sara shook off the nostalgia and asked in a serious tone.

Ignoring the question, Nyssa slinked toward the blonde and posed a question of her own, "Are you prepared to sever the bonds of two hundred women to this monster?"

With a sigh, the other woman dropped her head and grumbled inwardly. It was typical for Nyssa to mask their missions of murder with grand claims of granting freedom. In this case, Sara's orders to kill one man would spark a chain of events that would bring a private escort organization to its knees. It was estimated that at least two hundred women had been kidnapped and forced into glamorously disguised sex slavery. Sara's ex-girlfriend lured her into joining the League with a positive spin on murder and a heightened need to prove her worth to the League.

Instead of arguing, the blonde answered steadily, "I've gathered enough information to slip in and out of his office without being detected. If you'd like, I can also steal a usb drive that I believe contains information on known associates, a client list and possibly the names of the women he abducted. He keeps it with him at all times."

"Please do retrieve the drive. My father believes this man is also linked to an enemy of the League."

"Could you possibly be more vague?" Sara queried.

"Until your loyalty has been cemented, it would be unwise for me to share—"

"Excuse me," the blonde interrupted, "Don't you trust me? I'm not going to betray the League. I made a mistake running away and I put people at risk. I don't make the same mistake twice."

"I have found that to be true." Nyssa softly trailed her fingers up Sara's arms to her shoulders and whispered gently, "Do not make the mistake of leaving me again."

Careful not to brush the woman off abruptly, Sara gently nudged Nyssa's hands off of her shoulders. With an understanding look, she replied, "I should be clear. I didn't come back for you. I can't be with you when I care for someone else."

"You cannot ever be with her," the taller assassin backed away retraining her disappointment.

Nodding sadly, the blonde acknowledged, "I know. I've accepted that. You need to let her go. Please."

"No."

"But why?" Sara's voice cracked with concern and confusion.

"If we release her, we are worried that you might attempt to escape and return to her and your family."

Sara scoffed, "What good would that do? I'll be followed again and someone else will get hurt."

"People have done stranger things for love."

"Not when other people's lives are on the line," Sara snapped. When Nyssa puffed out her chest, the blonde backed down not wanting to unleash the woman's aggression. "I'm not an idiot. Let her go."

Once again deflecting Sara's request, the other assassin asked, "How do you know that she is still on board? I gave explicit instructions that you are not to see her."

Sara smirked, "Do you really need an answer to that question? Have you forgotten who trained me?"

Nyssa fought back a full on grin and replied, "Of course not."

"I haven't seen her," the blonde clarified. "Cain wouldn't let me near her even if I asked politely."

Chuckling, Nyssa sank down onto the bed and commented, "He's not one to be swayed by politeness."

"Nyssa. Please let her go," she shot her ex-girlfriend a tender glance. Although she had no intention of returning to the woman, Sara wasn't opposed to offering tiny bits of encouragement. After years on the island and even more in the League, she knew the importance of manipulation and deceit. She intended to exploit Nyssa's blind spot to the fullest extent, but carefully, _very_ carefully.

Yielding to Sara's plea and feminine wiles, Nyssa sighed and conceded, "Fine. I will release her. I believe you understand the severity of the consequences if you disappear again."

Although she successfully suppressed a squeal of delight, her voice jumped an octave as she chirped, "Thank you! I won't risk her life or the lives of my family."

Actually happy to see the bright look on Sara's face, the raven haired assassin replied, "Good. I'll arrange a pick up for her and she'll be back at home tomorrow."

"May I see her? To say goodbye? Please, Nyssa." This was a stretch, but she had to take a chance.

"Sara... I—"

"Please." Once again, she donned the wide eyes and small smile Nyssa had never successfully resisted.

"Alright."

"Thank you," the blonde leapt forward and squeezed Nyssa's hands out of gratitude.

"I'm not cruel, Sara," Nyssa quietly commented.

Sara assumed that to be true. She hoped that her ex was merely following orders and reacting to Sara's betrayal as a wounded lover. "You're hurt. I know."

"I'll come find you later and take you to her. I'd like to be left alone now."

The woman retreated slowly and said, "Thank you again, Nyssa. It means a lot."

"I don't quite understand what you see in her. She appears to be an insipid girl who blabbers on about nothing and thinks you walk on water."

"She's astoundingly intelligent." With a broad smile, Sara shook her head and concluded, "She didn't always think so highly of me."

* * *

><p>"Why is there a picture of my face next to the word 'Interpol' on your screen?" Sara asked.<p>

"Ah! You!" Felicity bounced in her seat in shock when Sara appeared at her side at her desk at Queen Consolidated. "I thought you were curled up in frumpy clothes eating ice cream… or something."

"Felicity…"

"I googled," The blonde replied sheepishly. She hesitantly glanced at the woman and flinched inwardly when she saw two blue eyes brimming with irritation.

"You googled?" Sara responded flatly without the smallest inkling of amusement.

Relying on her charm to deflate the situation, Felicity expounded with a forced grin, "Yup. Just typed in 'Interpol blonde assassin black leather' and up popped your picture. It's a good picture by the way."

"That's not even close to a convincing lie. Are you trying to insult me?"

"Insult? What?" Not expecting a hostile situation, the IT nerd stuttered, "I—umm—no insulting intended."

Sara planted a one hand firmly on the desk, leaned over and rammed a finger against the screen and demanded, "Why is my picture on your screen?"

"Oh no no no," Felicity yanked the woman's finger away from the screen nervously requested, "Please don't touch that."

"Picture."

"I snoop!" the accosted blonde declared with hands thrown up in defeat. "I dig; I hack; I find shit. It's what I do, Sara."

"Did Oliver ask you to do this?"

"Now I'm insulted," Felicity threw back.

"Felicity," Sara dropped a hand on the angry girl's shoulder and assured her, "that's not what I meant. You're not his property. You don't take orders from him. I know that."

A little disappointed that her only claim to fury had just been ripped away, the blonde brushed some lint off her skirt and said, "I wanted to see if you had a criminal history."

"I didn't think that I did," Sara spoke with a hint of worry.

"You don't," the other blonde explained, "I found this in a cache. It's not on any current file systems."

"What does that mean?"

Shrugging, she offered only conjecture, "Clearly, someone got you got removed from the list. This is just an old copy I managed to dig out of their not-so-deleted repository."

"You think someone doesn't know how to delete me permanently from the list?"

"Nope. Looks like you've just been shoved under the rug. This file could be restored by anyone who knows of its existence." Felicity picked up a pen and unconsciously rapped it on the top of the desk.

Sara straightened up, folded her arms and asked carefully, "Why exactly were you checking up on my criminal history?" When Felicity started to answer with a defensive gleam in her eye, the assassin added, "And don't say that it's just what you do."

"Oh boy," the other woman groaned. Not thrilled about possibly upsetting a trained killer, she cleared her throat and said, "I wanted to make sure you didn't have any warrants or flags or bells going off somewhere."

"I see."

Unsure as to what those two lone words entailed, Felicity looked up at Sara who wore a look of disgust. Not sure as to how best to proceed, she simply asked, "You see what?"

"Still protecting Oliver?"

Not even the least bit apologetic, the blonde rose to her feet and replied, "Why yes. Yes I am. I'm also protecting myself and John and Laurel and your—"

"You don't trust me." Sara spat with more malice than she actually felt.

"You didn't let me finish!" Felicity snapped. When Sara froze allowing her to speak, she clarified, "Also to protect you. I thought you might like to know if someone had flagged you as an international threat, which you kinda are since you've been killing people for the last few years. Fortunately for you, the League of Crazies is good at cleaning up after itself. You're squeaky clean. You're welcome." She concluded with a huff.

With a frown, Sara stepped over and rolled the mouse pointer around the screen. She popped up three windows that had been minimized. Two of them were internet links to records of some of her past indiscretions. Another was an article about her disappearance and included interviews with some of her college friends. She drooped her head. "If you wanted to know about me, you could have just asked."

Felicity bit her bottom lip. She had nowhere left to hide. When Sara stood back up, her entire face whispered words of disappointment. Although a witty response tugged at the tip of her tongue, she didn't dare give it a voice. Instead, she said, "I know. I'm just used to figuring out things on my own."

"You don't need to figure me out, Felicity."

"Mysteries bug me."

"Well," Sara turned on her heel and strutted toward the elevator, "have a conversation with me and your problem might be solved."

"Unfortunately, I don't know you well enough to figure out if you're mad and being sarcastic or if you actually want to talk to me."

Before stepping into the elevator, the assassin replied flatly, "Google it."

* * *

><p>"Yo, Romulus," Felicity called out to her personal jailor who had slinked into the shadows several hours ago.<p>

The man in question appeared into the dim light and replied with a huff, "Yes, Princess?"

"Okay," the blonde hopped to her feet and moseyed toward the cell bars. "Please don't judge me for asking this question." She clapped her hands together with a bit of hesitation. When Cain didn't respond, she waved her hands in a beckoning motion and pried, "You gonna answer? That requires some kind of verbal acknowledgement."

"I'll reserve my judgment," he snipped.

"Great," she nodded her head with dismay. "That is not reassuring at all. Anyway," she bumped her glasses into a more comfortable position on her face and continued, "I have to ask about Sara. There's this weird rock in my stomach that sometimes seems to liquefy and threaten to explode out of my mouth."

"Thank you for the visualization," Cain noted.

"I already have enough to deal with, ya know, I'm locked in a cage on a ship in the middle of god knows where. She's on this ship and I have no fucking clue what she's doing or what she's feeling and it seriously sucks." Cain rolled his eyes and she continued, "I'm a fucking girl, Grumpy. Girls have feelings: ooey gooey ones that drive us insane that we have no way to control."

"Well, Princess—"

"No Princess bullshit!" Felicity snapped. "Don't I at least deserve some damn information? I mean seriously, what did I do to deserve this?"

"She's preparing," the man said simply. Despite his best efforts, he had slowly developed a little humanity when it came to Felicity.

"Preparing for what?"

"Do you truly need me to explain it to you?" Cain grumbled.

Felicity gulped, "To kill someone."

"She's an assassin, Princess."

"I do not like my new nickname," the blonde commented as she retreated to the cot.

"Stay strong."

Perking up a bit, Felicity asked, "Do I hear you caring again?"

Unable to restrain his reply, he said, "We are not all cruel monsters."

"Correct. Some of you are nice, fluffy killers."

Cain frowned and replied, "Sara isn't the only one of us to have lost something."

Felicity cocked her head to the side and asked, "What did you lose, Cain?"

"Felicity!" a voice cried out from what seemed like miles away.

Regardless of the distance, the blonde would recognize that voice anywhere, "Sara!"

* * *

><p><em>Yeah. I know I shouldn't have cut it off here, but I'm still writing the next part so I thought I'd give you guys something in the meantime. Sorry for the lack of stuff "happening" in this chapter. The setup for other things had to be done sometime.<em>


	5. Farewells

_That cliffhanger was terribly rude. My bad :)_

_This will fix it!_

* * *

><p>Sara's beautiful freckled face momentarily skewed Felicity's perception of her circumstances. There were no roses, butterflies or birds chirping, but the dim flickering lights brightened and the stench of wet wood and body odor faded. "Thank god you're alive," she exclaimed as she choked back tears. She squeezed the metal bars so tightly that her knuckles turned white.<p>

The blonde assassin crossed the room with huge strides and asked with urgency, "Did they hurt you?" She threw herself at her girlfriend's cell and threaded her fingers with Felicity's.

"No, no," the other woman assured her, "Grumpy here has taken a shining to me." Sniffing back all hints of weepy emotions, she smirked at the frowning man.

Not even asking about the nickname, Sara turned to the gruff assassin and ordered, "Open the door." He didn't flinch.

Before the blonde barked out with haste and fury, Nyssa called out, "Let her in, Cain."

Concealing any outward reaction, he tugged Sara back by the shoulder and shoved a key into the rusty lock. He blocked her path to the doorway, snagged her upper right arm and whispered forcefully, "Strength, Canary."

"What?" Sara lowered her voice at his puzzling words.

Barely nodding in Felicity's direction, he clarified, "Be strong for both of your sakes."

Although Cain rarely offered kind words and bathed even less, she never discounted any small warnings he chose to voice. When the man stepped aside, Sara didn't have to step far into the cell before her girlfriend thrust herself into the assassin's arms. Felicity wrapped her arms tightly around her lower back and buried her face into her left shoulder. Sara planted a kiss into her girlfriend's greasy blonde locks and propped her chin on the girl's head. With one hand caressing her back and the other stroking her hair, Sara could only manage, "Felicity..."

Sara spotted the small cot and gently guided Felicity a few steps backward and carefully sat down with the woman still in her arms. Moments later, the IT girl slowly sat up and noted, "Holy crap. I seriously didn't think I was going to go all wet noodle on you. I've been all strong and snarky and 'grrr' this whole time."

Sensing one of her girlfriend's spiels coming on, Sara simply smiled and folded Felicity's hands in her own. As expected, Felicity continued after a single breath, "It just hit me how much I've missed you. Not that I haven't missed you, because I seriously have." Not opposed to further talking, but displeased by the lack of contact, the blonde assassin leaned in and trailed small kisses down Felicity's neck. Gasping out of pleasure, the other woman missed a beat before blabbing on, "I forgot how much I love your hugs and... such. Oh! And thank you so, so much for pulling whatever strings you had to pull to get me a bed of sorts."

"Getting you what?" Sara muttered against the woman's pale skin. "A bed?"

Felicity nearly crushed Sara's face between her hands as she yanked the woman's lips from her neck and smashed them against her lips. The initial contact was askew, but they quickly remedied the situation with ravenous motions. Just as Sara clasped her fingers around Felicity's wrists, her girlfriend pushed her away and blurted, "I love you too." When the tint of pink brushed across her cheeks and a smirk tugged at Sara's mouth, Felicity continued in a much quieter voice, "I know it's delayed."

With four fingers tucked under the Felicity's chin and her thumb tracing her lips, Sara smiled and replied, "It means a lot. I'm glad I got to hear you say it."

Speaking despite a thumb running circles against her mouth, the blonde admitted, "I should have said it before, but I didn't want to freak you out or something. It was hard not to say it, because your face is your pretty face and your eyes just yank words out of my brain. Of course, I never have time to filter. My mouth kinda goes its own way; I have no control."

After softly kissing the ranting woman's nose, Sara replied, "I love hearing you talk."

With a wide grin and sparkling eyes, Felicity said, "I can continue."

"Or," the assassin grabbed her girlfriend by the waist and yanked Felicity into her lap. "I can do this." She tucked loose strands of hair behind the pierced ear, leaned forward and playfully tugged at Felicity's bottom lip with her teeth.

With no intention of resisting, Felicity withdrew her lip from the trap of teeth and teased the tip of her tongue against her girlfriend's slightly parted lips. Her fingers laced around the back of Sara's neck as she slowly slipped her tongue into the warmth of Sara's now open mouth.

Against her will, the reality of the situation rushed to the front of Sara's brain. She was here to say goodbye, but she had very few words to say. Instead of a long, emotional verbal drivel, she poured every feeling into this moment. Her hands savored every touch as her fingers danced underneath Felicity's hair, across her shoulders, down her back and around her waist. Frantically, her lips and tongue explored her mouth, cheeks, nose and chin.

When Felicity pulled back for a breath and a loving glance, she was horrified by what she saw. That was not a good look. Noticing Felicity's worry, Sara quickly planted several kisses on the woman's lips. After a solid, heartfelt kiss, she swallowed, leaned back and whispered, "I love you." Her eyes betrayed her.

"No, no," Felicity's pawed at Sara's jacket. "I know what that was."

Refusing to drop her gaze despite wanting to escape the look of pain in her girlfriend's eyes, Sara murmured, "Babe..."

"That was a Last Supper goodbye kiss and sweet nothings of parting."

"Felicity..."

"No, Sara," Felicity gasped as she felt her lungs dry up in her chest. "Please no."

After nudging the distraught woman off of her lap, Sara rubbed Felicity's thighs and offered a frail explanation, "You can't stay here and I have to stay here."

Felicity shook her head and replied, "I can't go back without you."

"You will be okay," Sara assured her.

"They'll never forgive me." Felicity's regard for others brought all those who loved Sara to mind.

Raising one of Felicity's shaking hands to her lips, the assassin kissed the top and said, "They will understand. You will see me again, but don't wait for me." The words following the 'but' crashed painfully in the women's hearts.

"This is by far the worst conversation we've ever had." Calming down, Felicity warned the solemn blonde, "Don't you dare tell me to move on and be happy or I'll slap you across the face."

Although not the best response, Sara confessed truthfully, "I don't want you to be with anyone else. Just be happy. You're so strong. You'll do what makes you happy."

"Or less miserable," Felicity clarified with a sigh. "And you?" she queried her girlfriend.

"Me what?"

"Are you going to be happy?"

Tucking her tongue between her back teeth, Sara returned with very little confidence, "I'll find some happy. I'll have to."

With a tiny smile, Felicity admitted as she fiddled with the bottom hem of Sara's shirt, "I started picturing you in my future you know."

"You weren't the only one." It pained the assassin to allow images of a future invade her brain space.

"Good."

Tilting her head trying to catch Felicity's gaze, Sara noted, "It's not like you to be monosyllabic."

"I think my brain is frozen."

Sara took up the speaking mantle and said, "I would apologize, but—"

"Don't do that," the blonde ordered without looking up.

"Just once?" Sara raised Felicity's head as her eyes begged for the opportunity to verbalize a brief apology.

Felicity conceded quietly, "Fine."

"I'm sorry for getting you kidnapped and tempting you with a life we can't have."

"And I'll shoot that down right now," the IT nerd quickly replied. "You didn't kidnap me and you shouldn't be sorry for trying to be happy. That's ridiculous. I'm freakin' happy that you want—" she stumbled, "wanted—"

"_Want_," Sara stressed the present tense. "I _want_."

Nodding, Felicity concluded, "_Want_ to be with me." Sara softly kissed the subdued woman. Felicity said, "Promise me that I'll see you again." She needed this one thing.

Without hesitating, Sara replied, "You will. I promise." Holding back a smirk, she continued, "You promise me something."

"Anything! Well, mostly anything."

"Don't date slash marry slash anything with Barry."

When the assassin's mouth gave way to a smile, Felicity swatted her on the shoulder and laughed, "You're a piece of work."

"I'm kidding," Sara fended off the playful blows.

The other woman disagreed, "No, you're not."

Skeptically, Sara clarified, "Only if he's somehow completely irresistible."

"Sara," Nyssa called out. "It's time to go."

"No," Felicity wrapped her arms tightly around Sara. This couldn't be real.

Cain towered over them and clamped a hand on the assassin's shoulder. He grunted, "Canary, you need to go."

Cradling her girlfriend in her arms, Sara jerked her head upward and seethed, "Keep your hands to yourself, Cain."

"Sara," Nyssa beckoned once again with more dominance and less patience.

"Strength," Cain repeated to the angry blonde.

"I—"

"The daughter of Ra's Al Ghul cannot see you like this. Please." The 'please' surprised both Sara and Felicity. He entreated, "Please, Canary. Be strong."

As much as she wanted to argue, Sara heeded the man's words. She pulled Felicity to her feet and held her close. She whispered into her hair, "I love you. You'll see me again."

"I love you too," Felicity mumbled into the woman's shoulder.

With all the strength she could muster, Sara gently pushed Felicity from her arms, turned and stalked out of the cell. She didn't look back. She couldn't look back.

Cain stood beside Felicity and held a hand to her back in case she collapsed out of distress. Staring at Sara's back as she and Nyssa walked out of the room, she commented, "I'm not going to fall down, Cain. I'm fine."

Although not persuaded, he didn't question her sincerity. "It's time for you to go home," he said simply.

"And leave my girlfriend to kill people and god knows what else," she scoffed. "This can't be happening."

"This is one loss. You will gain so much more."

"I don't think I can say the same for Sara," Felicity replied sadly.

Cain cleared his throat before commenting hesitantly, "She will see you again."

Confused by her jailer's echoing of Sara's promise, she asked, "What has you so convinced of that?"

With an unwavering certainty, he narrowed his eyes and said, "We always find those we love."

"I kinda want to believe you, but your semi-nice words are weirding me out. Perhaps I underestimated the 'shining' I mentioned." When he pulled a syringe from his jacket, she rolled her eyes and asked, "Really? Again?"

"Goodbye Felicity," Cain slid the needle into her neck and caught her limp body in his arms. He flung her light frame over his shoulder and marched toward the exit.

A male assassin commented as he passed, "Looks like the blondes make you go soft?"

Cain raised a fist and backhanded the man across the face. "Watch your tongue," he warned.

Wiping away the blood from his bleeding lip, the other man asked, "Why else would you go to the trouble of getting this bitch a cot?" He smirked and added sarcastically, "That was so kind of you."

Glaring at his comrade, Cain snipped, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

* * *

><p>A strong hand shaking her started Felicity. With her eyes clamped shut she exclaimed, "Whoa. What?" When her eyes snapped open, she saw Cain looming over her.<p>

"Hello, Princess," he said.

"Wait a second," she glanced to her right and to her left. The unfamiliar wood paneled walls, but familiar musky scent of the ship alarmed her and she yelled, "This isn't my apartment!"

"No," Cain affirmed. "This is your home now."

* * *

><p><em>Flashbacks are on the way!<em>


	6. Necessity

_Good morning/afternoon/evening. Thanks for coming back to read!_

* * *

><p>With an elbow propped on a guard rail at the stern of the ship, Sara leaned over the edge and studied the ebb and flow of the water. She savored these moments of stillness. Unfortunately, she couldn't enjoy the calm before the kill as she did years ago. If she momentarily cast aside thoughts of assassinations, guilt and sadness flooded the open cave in her mind. She didn't have Nyssa to comfort her or fill the gaping hole in her soul.<p>

Groaning and diverting her attention from her depressing thoughts, she straightened up and cracked her knuckles while rolling her neck in a circle. The loud, familiar popping made her smile. She rotated her arms in circles to her side and then switched to a cross arm stretch to loosen up her shoulders. She smiled again at the sound of the leather brushing against itself. She actually liked her black outfit. After taking a deep breath, she dropped on her hands and knees. She pumped her arms and jumped to her feet as she did her typical set of thirty burpees.

Only slightly winded, she glanced upward at an arch, hopped up and grabbed a rafter suspended a couple of feet above her head. With little effort, she completed fifteen underhanded pull-ups. As usual, the last five and following ten overhanded pull-ups left her muscles screaming for relief. Hanging by her tired arms, she folded her legs upward, threaded them through her arms and hooked the backs of her feet over the top of the beam. With a grunt, she forced herself higher until she dropped her arms and hung only by her knees firmly wrapped around the beam.

"Well hello there," Nyssa greeted the blonde as she approached.

"Hey," Sara grunted as she crossed her arms over her chest and curled her upper body up to her legs. She caught an upside-down glimpse of the amused assassin between every painful crunch.

"You always were quite the exhibitionist."

"Ha!" the blonde let out a husky chuckle as she swung upward, slid her legs off the bar and dropped gracefully to her feet. Breathing steadily, she replied, "I just like to be prepared."

"So that ridiculous push-up and sit up competition with Daniel was just a—"

"I won," Sara smirked.

"I should have known not to bet against you."

"We all make mistakes," the blonde commented lightly. Nyssa paused as she contemplated Sara's words. Steering the conversation before it headed in an uncomfortable direction, Sara asked, "When will the plane be here?"

"Any moment," the other woman handed the blonde her wig and mask. "Put this on before it arrives. Your true identity is your—"

"Greatest vulnerability," Sara finished the sentence. "I haven't been gone long enough to forget that." She almost continued in quoting the flip side: 'Your mask is your greatest defense' and even point out that her favorite saying had always been: 'A weapon is merely a tool to use, not a crutch to rest upon'. However, she dare not stray into a comfort zone with her former friend and girlfriend.

As Nyssa helped the woman straighten the wig and the mask, she added, "I find our phrases incredibly worn out, but I don't mind 'Shadows are your dearest friends'."

"Hence why we practically live in the dark," the blonde noted as she strapped her batons to her back.

The roar of the seaplane alongside the starboard quarter brought their amicable exchange to a halt. No words were exchanged as Sara took a running leap off the deck and landed in a crouched position on the left wing of the plane. As the plane glided forward along the water, she dropped down onto the left pontoon and climbed into an open door into the fuselage.

The pilot neither spoke to her nor acknowledged her existence. The League often paid or "persuaded" pilots or drivers to carry them from point to point. This outsourced transportation led to silent rides. As she buckled herself into her seat, she slid a touchscreen remote the size of a deck of cards and fiddled with it between her fingers. Although she had talked herself through the plan at least a dozen times, she always obsessed about the ways it could go wrong. She flipped on the device and navigated to a layout of the secluded office located only a mile away from the beach.

Although not fortified, the one story building boasted twenty cameras outside the house and the same number inside. At this time of night, there were four patrolling guards on the perimeter, three pacing the halls and one manning a small operations room watching the cameras. If she executed every step perfectly and every person behaved as predicted, the assassination would result in one casualty. Unfortunately, too many missteps could potentially raise the number of victims to nine.

Settling in for the half hour flight, she played her entry and exit strategy in her head like a movie. She glossed over the kill. No need to dwell on that. Since she'd been with Oliver, her body count had dropped below twenty in six months. Most of the kills, like those of Oliver, were completely unavoidable and not noteworthy. Only one had been optional and intentional, but it felt like so long ago. She chuckled realizing the reason behind both this mission and her other necessary kill: Felicity, always Felicity.

* * *

><p>"Why couldn't she just ask me?" Sara complained to Oliver as she paced around the room of the Arrow lair. Although the blonde kept to herself out of habit, she felt comfortable talking, well bitching, to Oliver.<p>

Shrugging into a tuxedo jacket, the Arrow replied hesitantly, "I don't think she meant anything by it. Felicity is just curious."

"You think she did the same when she met you?"

"Oh," Oliver nodded with an eyebrow raise, "I'm one hundred percent sure that she did."

She skulked to the table littered with arrows and grumbled, "Why search on the internet when she could just ask me?"

"You don't come across as someone who wants to chat about herself. She's been around me long enough to know that there are things I don't want to talk about."

Shaking her head in dismay, she returned, "So to her, I'm exactly like you?"

With a smirk, Oliver bravely failed to answer but instead commented, "I haven't seen you act this much like a girl since the Gambit."

She rolled her eyes and said, "I should punch you for that."

"You probably should, but don't wrinkle my tux."

"Insufferable as usual."

"Am I interrupting something?" Felicity called out as she meandered into the room, but still in the shadows.

Sara's childish anger swelled and she snipped, "Are you eavesdropping now?"

Felicity strutted into the light and noted, "If I were eavesdropping, I would be in a corner being creepy quiet. I'm not in a corner, nor am I being quiet so—"

"Wow," Oliver interrupted. Both he and Sara shamelessly swept their eyes up and down the nerdy blonde transformed into a picturesque painting of a woman. The red floor length dress clung to her abdomen and hips while falling freely at her thighs. While a solid piece of material hugged her from the top of her abs to her toes, two pieces of fabric met behind her neck, wrapped around to the front, crossed at her sternum and barely covered her breasts before joining to the rest of the dress at her sides.

"Why—" Sara choked out the word as she fought to rip her eyes from the exposed skin on Felicity's chest. After clearing her throat, she tried again, "Why the dress?"

Very pleased with the slobbering reactions of Sara and Oliver, Felicity replied, "I have a hot date."

Quickly piecing together a theory involving Felicity in a suggestive evening dress and Ollie in a tuxedo, the puzzled assassin asked Oliver, "You're going on date with her?"

Felicity chuckled at the hint of disdain in Sara's voice. _This chick is so not happy with me_. Although she had spent a limited amount of time with her, Felicity deduced that Sara spoke louder and more frequently with her tone and body language than she did with actual words. "So, so easy," the woman snickered.

"We're gathering intel," Ollie interjected. While Felicity enjoyed baiting Sara for whatever reason, he knew better than to let her humor go unchecked. He had no desire to see the two of them go at it.

"In a tux and slinky slut dress?" Sara scoffed in return. If Felicity had wiped the smirk off her face, the frustrated blonde might have skipped the completely ridiculous comment.

Taking it in stride, the other woman said, "I will choose to take that as a compliment. I saw your jaw drop a few seconds ago. No need to demean my attire that you clearly—"

"Okay!" the Arrow held up his hands between the two women. "Sara, we're just doing some mingling. I don't expect any trouble."

"Trouble always finds you," the assassin reminded glibly.

"Not with me by his side," Felicity slipped her arm through Oliver's and flashed him a cheesy smile.

"A beautiful blonde might increase the risk," Sara corrected without thinking.

With a smirk, Felicity mocked the woman, "Did you just call me beautiful? What happened to slut?"

Now extremely uncomfortable, Sara cleared her throat and replied flatly, "Blondes do attract attention especially inquisitive ones."

"Just blondes?" Oliver teased his friend.

"Don't you two have somewhere to be?" Sara asked. The sooner they leave, the sooner she could tail them. She'd stashed her Canary attire nearby so she could snag it on the way out.

"Yes we do," the amused man declared. He smiled at Felicity, "Ready to go?"

"Oh, I always love hanging out with rich muckety mucks."

* * *

><p>"What the hell, Cain!" Felicity shouted as Cain strolled into her room slamming the large metal door behind him.<p>

"Before you yell at me, Princess, you owe me thanks for managing to get you something other than broth," he gestured with a plate of grilled chicken wings and mashed potatoes.

She narrowed her eyes and scrunched up her mouth in frustration. Unfortunately for the somewhat considerate man, she never passed on the opportunity to voice her irritation, "No, no. You can't try and appease me with food. Thanks, but I get a few seconds to bitch at you."

He groaned and conceded, "You have thirty seconds."

She promptly launched into a tirade, "How dare you drug me, drop me off back in this damn ship and then just walk away! Don't I deserve an explanation?" He started to answer to which she snipped, "Zip! No. It's my time right now. What's the point anyway? I was compliant and Sara is back on the murder train. This is a bunch of bullshit. I've lost my girlfriend and now I just want to go home. I—"

"Your time is up," Cain interrupted.

"No way. I talk really fast. That was definitely less than thirty seconds."

Sporting his typical frown through his dark brown whiskers, he disagreed, "According to me, the one keeping you fed, your time for an outburst is over." He shoved the plate into her arms and ordered. "Now sit down and eat before I change my mind and starve you for a few days."

She accepted the food, sank down on the cot without a word and ate slowly. Although she was intent on being angry with Cain, she couldn't help but smile with thanks as she shoveled potatoes into her mouth. Concealing an upside-down frown of his own, he scratched at his beard near his mouth. He knew how dangerous it was for him to develop any type of attachment to this girl, even if it was only of the protector variety. Apparently he'd gone too long without feeling much of anything, now his pile of losses made him vulnerable. He had to be careful. If any member of the League suspected favoritism, he'd suffer as well as Felicity. Nothing could happen to her- not again.

"Does she even know that I'm still here?" Felicity asked meekly.

Grateful for the distraction from his rabbit hole of thoughts, he answered, "No. She knows nothing."

Hesitantly, the blonde continued as she placed the clean plate next to her, "At the risk of being screamed at, can I ask why? I don't see the point."

"I'm only given enough information to act upon. My only guess is that Ra's al Ghol's daughter believes it is too risky to set you free."

"Ah, the Arrow connection. I'm a partner of his," Felicity nodded her head in understanding. "He's going to come after us both. She's kidding herself if she thinks he'll just let us disappear and not do anything about it."

"It would be best if he did not," Cain replied. "If the Canary performs to Nyssa's satisfaction, she'll let you go. The Canary is actually out right now on her first assignment."

"Oh boy," the blonde cheered sarcastically, "I'm sure she's having loads of fun."

"She is very talented. She is quiet, efficient and clean."

"She sounds like a talented dishwasher."

"I trained her."

Taken aback, Felicity blurted, "Do what now?" Pausing for a moment, she recovered and said, "I guess it makes sense. You're an older dude—guy—man—person and mentor-ish." She was grasping at straws. "I'm sure you trained her efficiently?" It came out as a question.

"One of her trainers," he clarified. He added solemnly, "You should be glad."

Still processing the fact that the man in front of her had molded Sara into the killer that she was, Felicity asked, "Why's that?"

"Some assassins do not mind collateral damage, but I taught her to minimize the—"

"Body count? To kill fewer people? How good of you," Felicity chimed in.

Cain heard the door creak open behind him as the blonde mouthed off to him. Just to be safe, he stood and reluctantly backhanded her across the face. Staring directly into her wide eyes, he snatched the plate from the cot and bellowed, "We do not have to be so kind to you! Watch your tongue or someone will cut it out!"

He shoved the snickering assassin out the door and slammed it behind both of them, leaving Felicity caressing her stinging cheek. At a loss of anything intelligent to say, she simply mumbled, "Well, fuck you too, Grumpy."

* * *

><p>"Don't move, Blondie," a man snarled as he buried the barrel of his Glock into the back of her neck. Felicity had meandered down a deserted hallway at the gala and been snatched by the escaped felon she and Oliver were tracking. Their mingling had taken a turn for the worse.<p>

Despite her shaking voice, Felicity replied, "Don't you know that girls don't like be identified by their hair color? Especially blondes. We have such a bad rap. I—"

"Shut the fuck up or I'll blow a hole through your spinal cord!"

Keeping her arms glued to sides of her red dress, Felicity felt a rush of adrenalin shoot through her veins. Momentarily lightheaded, she recommended, "How about we calm down? I'm sure this can end peacefully."

"Oh, I'm sure it can. I've wanted leverage on the Arrow and it seems that you never can go wrong with a beautiful woman."

A bit disgusted by the compliment, the blonde said, "Thank you? I think."

"Drop the gun!" Sara boomed as she skidded to a halt in front of Felicity and her captor. She spun her batons at her side and tucked them underneath her arms. "Now!"

The angry man clamped his free left hand on Felicity's shoulder and pushed the gun further into her flesh. "Ah. Another mask. Another hero."

"Heroine," Felicity corrected as she winced in pain. She'd never been so glad to see Sara in her ridiculously tight black outfit and wig. Oh that dumb wig.

"Shut up, bitch!" the bearded man commanded his hostage. He leaned forward and snaked his head around her right shoulder. "I don't think you want to die today."

"Do you?" Sara asked propping one of the batons on her shoulder.

Laughing cruelly, he noted, "I don't think you're in any position to threaten me."

"Then you clearly don't know who you're dealing with," Sara replied.

"Gun to the head, Sara," Felicity clarified with bug eyes staring down the leather clad assassin. "I have a gun to my head."

A terrible boulder of fear settled in Sara's stomach. This could not happen. Hoping to assure herself as well as the frightened woman, she said, "Not for long."

"Your confidence is admirable, but foolish."

Felicity felt his grip loosen and she ordered, "Sara, duck!"

"What?"

"Duck!" she screamed as she snagged the man's wrist on her shoulder with her right hand and wrenched it to the right. As the man grunted in pain and froze for a moment in shock, she spun to her left and straightened her right arm as she faced him. His arm twisting further forced him to crouch just as the blonde knocked his gun arm wide to his right with a swift and calculated blow to the inside of his elbow. She released his left hand and jumped for the slide of the gun. When she caught it in her left hand, she forced the weapon down and tight to her left hip. Completely thrown off balance, the man didn't stand a chance when her right knuckles barreled toward his neck. She easily pried his hand from the gun as he fell to his knees and struggled to breathe with hands clawing at his throat. The gun magazine and a bullet bounced off the carpet as she quickly unloaded the gun. With a diagonal right downward motion, she slammed the handle of the gun across his head. His body fell limp to the ground and Sara stood paralyzed with a slack jaw.

After a few deep breaths, Felicity realized what happened in the past ten seconds and nearly collapsed on the floor next to her victim. Fortunately, two strong arms wrapped across her chest and lowered her slowly to the ground. "Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy, holy shit." Felicity repeated breathlessly.

Sara's racing thoughts bounced back and forth between concern for Felicity and utter shock at what she just witnessed. "Are you okay?" Her voice dripped with worry.

"I don't—I think—what just—is he dead?" she screeched in horror.

Afraid of the answer, Sara maneuvered out from under Felicity and scooted toward the unconscious man. With a strike like that to the throat and blunt trauma to the head, she doubted that he would survive much longer. She flipped him face up and placed two fingers against the artery in his neck. His weak pulse and shallow breaths confirmed her suspicion: his windpipe was crushed. Fortunately, he was hanging on by a thread and she turned and shook her head, "No, he's not dead."

To keep Felicity's conscience clear and simply cement her own nature, she raised a baton and smacked it against his throat. Lowering her ear to his mouth and returning two fingers to his neck, she waited a few moments until his breathing ceased and his heart stopped pumping blood beneath her fingers.

"What the—" Felicity whispered.

"He's dead now," Sara confirmed as she slowly crawled back to the bewildered blonde with her eyes trained on the carpet. She didn't dare make eye contact with the other woman.

"Why did you? What did you?" Felicity sputtered. "He wasn't dead and now he is? I don't—why?"

The assassin wanted to speak the truth. She wanted to inform the woman that he would have died within hours. You can't breathe with a crushed trachea. However, admitting that would imply that Felicity had indeed killed him. She couldn't taint this woman's soul like that. As a mercy to Felicity, she accelerated the death of a man already standing at the gates of hell, if there was a hell.

"He was a dead man when he pointed that gun at your head," Sara opted for a revengeful explanation of her action.

Raising Sara's chin so she could look her into her eyes, the baffled woman restated, "You killed him because he threatened me?"

That's not what she meant. Or was it? "Look. If he escaped, we'd have to chase him. That sounds tedious."

"So, you—" Felicity pushed herself to her knees and stuttered, "you thought killing him was the best option? Nothing else came to mind like, oh, I dunno, anything?"

"It's over," Sara grumbled. She steadied her accuser as she rose to her feet.

Quickly backing away from the assassin, Felicity scoffed at the answer, "Yeah. It sure is except for the fact that there is a dead body six feet away from us."

"I'll take care of it," the now frustrated blonde threw back. Still curious, she asked, "Where did you learn that?"

"You think Oliver would let me out of the house without knowing how to take away a gun?" Felicity replied with a hint of pride.

Unable to hold back a smirk, the other woman commented, "Let you out of the house, hmm?"

Seeing Sara's eyes sparkle with humor tugged a small smile across Felicity's lips as she returned, "When he's in a good mood. So, rarely." When Sara chuckled in response, she shook the smile from her face and forced, "I'm still mad at you for killing that guy."

The other blonde's face glistened with amusement and she nodded sarcastically, "Sure you are."

"I can be mad at you later," the woman in the red informed the woman in black.

"Sure you can. I'll also be mad at you for snooping."

With an exaggerated wink, Felicity replied, "Sure you will. Oh," She waved at the body on the floor when she remembered her distaste of Sara's method of handling the situation, "You gonna take care of that?"

* * *

><p><em>In case you're wondering who Cain is, he's nobody at all. ;)<em>


	7. Questions

_Greetings to all! I do apologize for the infrequent updates. I don't have as much free time as I used to. _

_Just a note, my interpretation of Sara might be a bit different from the Sara on Arrow. When I started this, I didn't really have any idea how she would interact with other characters- especially Felicity. I'm going to proceed with my original vision of her rather than conform to the tv version. Keep that in mind as you read as she might appear a little OOC._

_Don't forget to read and review. I love hearing from you guys._

* * *

><p>Felicity sat cross-legged on her charcoal blue sofa sloppily shoveling Cheerios into her mouth. Her spoon dove haphazardly into a wide cream colored bowl and then plunged the soggy circles between her lips. The smacking sound of her chewing started to annoy her, but not enough to stop. She was trying to process what just happened at the gala and she opted for cereal rather than the bottle of pinot noir half full in her fridge. As soon as she had shuffled into her apartment, the dress had fallen off her thin body and was replaced by sweatpants and a tank top. Unfortunately, her defense mechanism of avoidance made processing a bit difficult. Cheerios helped. Perhaps tv would help too.<p>

As she strained to reach the remote on the coffee table, a figure in her peripheral made her jerk to the right. "Ah! What the hell!" Sara's inexplicable presence in the hall to her bedroom scared the shit out of her. "I don't remember leaving a window open in my bedroom. Why were you in my bedroom?" She slid the almost empty bowl onto the wooden table and observed, "You and Oliver have serious boundary issues."

Neither answering her question nor addressing her comment, Sara stated, "I need to make sure that you're okay." She stalked into the room and sank down onto the end of the coffee table.

Since she was a bit rattled, Felicity simply joked, "I'm fine. You should see the other guy." Sara's nondescript look and failure to speak prompted a quiet question, "Too soon? No sense of humor?"

Over the past few hours, Sara had done her own thinking and her previously somewhat playful behavior had faded. "You almost died."

Waiting for a follow-up explanation, Felicity raised her eyebrows at the flat sentence. The statement seemed to naturally flow into some kind of exposition, yet Sara kept quiet, clearly comfortable with the silence. "Where are you going with that?" Felicity asked abruptly. "You need to use more words if I'm going to follow your train of thought."

After pursing her lips, the assassin said, "He was going to put a bullet in your head."

"I was there. I know what happened," Felicity responded a bit too flippantly resulting in a confused look on her companion's face. Although clearly boiling with opinions and questions, Sara again said nothing. Shaking her head, Felicity hoped to address Sara's concern by explaining, "I'm not trying to blow off what happened… not exactly. I'm just… trying not to think about it. This, a bomb collar—it's all in the line of work."

"Bomb collar?" Sara's ears perked up.

Waving a hand dismissively, the woman replied, "Another almost-lost-my-head scenario, but Oliver fixed it so no biggie."

Sara clenched a fist and pushed it against her lips. She mumbled through her fingers, "Tonight couldn't have been fixed. You almost died."

A bit annoyed by the woman's downtrodden and solemn manner, Felicity agreed with an aggravated sigh, "Yes, you've already said. If there's more to this serious face business, you should spit it out." When Sara raised her head to lock eyes with her, Felicity stated, "Sara, you don't say very much. I probably say more in two hours than I've heard you say ever since I've met you."

Unable to budge from the memory playing back in her head, Sara said fervently, "I couldn't have saved you. He had a gun to your head and I had nothing."

The other woman offered her own assessment, "He seemed more interested in me as a hostage than a dead girl."

Shaking her head knowingly, Sara disagreed, "He got nervous. I made him nervous."

"I guess it's a good thing Oliver and John trained me so well. I've practiced those moves so many times."

"Nervous people shoot," Sara muttered paying no heed to the other woman speaking.

"Are we having a conversation?" Felicity tilted her head hoping to catch Sara's roaming eyes. "Sara? You seem to just be talking _at_ me, which is fine. I don't mind being talked at. Just give me a head nod or a wave or something."

Glancing up, the assassin assured her, "Felicity, I'm not socially challenged. I just choose my words carefully." Over the past several years, the only person she felt comfortable opening up to was Nyssa. With all the secrets and the lies necessary in her line of work, she adopted a minimalistic approach to conversing with others. It was a habit she needed to break.

"Pffftt, well if that's your bag, you must love me," Felicity replied sarcastically.

"I am realizing that brevity isn't always the best thing."

Completely switching gears, a bright albeit strange idea popped into Felicity's head, "I have a question. It's very random. I realize that prior to asking, but I'm going to proceed."

Already prepared to be amused, Sara replied, "Okay."

"We should go to dinner sometime," Felicity all but blurted. "Wait. I need to pose that as a question. Would you like to go to dinner sometime?"

Astounded by the woman's ability to draw them out of a heavy conversation, Sara noted, "Your timing is ridiculous."

Clapping her hands together, the IT nerd said, "Hey, there's no time like the present. Plus, you were the one complaining about how you'd rather me grill you in person about past details of your life. This dinner thing will remedy the situation and hopefully get rid of all the weird almost animosity we've managed to build up."

"Okay," Sara nodded.

"Okay?"

"Do I need to say something else?" the assassin smirked.

"Yeah—I mean no," Felicity smashed her eyes shut in a bit of embarrassment and explained, "I speak so, so much and you come back with a few words. It'll take some getting used to."

"You plan on getting used to me?"

With a shrug, the blonde said, "How can I pass up getting to know someone who sneaks in my window in the middle of the night?"

Nodding and grinning, Sara answered, "We'll be in touch."

As Sara rose to her feet, Felicity followed suit and answered, "That's very non-specific. You suck at making plans."

Ignoring the woman, Sara teased, "You looked good in that dress by the way". Somehow, she'd switched from paralyzing worry to light flirtation. _This girl is something else._

For some reason, the compliment sparked a curiosity in Felicity. That curiosity begged a bit of digging before she dared to dwell on it. She said, "Speaking of me looking good in a dress, your talent for one word answers will come in handy for another question."

"Yes?"

Before she lost her nerve, the blonde asked hurriedly, "Has anything happened between you and Oliver? Will anything happen between you and Oliver? Do you want anything to happen between you and Oliver?" She was shocked by the bit of jealousy that coated her words. _Where did that come from?_

"Doesn't that take three words?"

"Does it?" She unconsciously held her breath.

"No," Sara said simply.

"_No_ as in—"

"As in _no_ to all three questions," a small smile accompanied her statement.

"Ah okay," the other woman sighed in relief and forgot to engage her filter before continuing, "Good. I mean—not _good _as in 'thank god!', but _good_ as in 'oh okay cool, that's nice'." Felicity mentally kicked herself.

Graciously letting her off the hook, Sara asked, "Those questions stemmed from my dress comment?"

"Yessss…" Felicity's voice trailed off.

"How?"

"It's super late," the blonde glanced at her non-existent watch. "It's been a crazy night. I need to sleep and stop talking. Mostly, I need to stop talking and you must go for that to happen."

Sara headed to the front door and pointed out, "I'll use the front door this time."

"That's what most people do," Felicity commented. The smile Sara flashed her way made her melt. _What the hell is going on?_

"Now we're even," Sara randomly said as she swung open the door.

Stepping toward the woman, Felicity's forehead wrinkled as she asked, "Even how? Were we uneven and I didn't know it?"

"Now I've seen you disheveled," the assassin noted as she motioned to Felicity's ensemble.

"I'm comfortable," Felicity grinned.

Before walking out, Sara gently laid a hand on Felicity's shoulder and said, "I'm glad you're okay."

"That makes two of us."

Pleased with the adorable smile on the IT nerd's face, the other blonde leaned in and planted a chaste kiss on Felicity's cheek. She whispered as she pulled away, "I'll see you soon."

"Oookaayyy…" Felicity stood a little stunned as Sara closed the door behind her. "Are we the kind of friends that kiss each other on the cheek? When did that happen?" Not at all offended, she couldn't shake the childish grin off her face or stop herself from brushing her fingers against her cheek. Yanking her thoughts from the rainbows and unicorns dancing above her head, she muttered, "Holy shit. Dammit. I _like_ her."

* * *

><p>"Good afternoon, brother," Nyssa greeted Cain pleasantly as he lounged outside Felicity's room. Despite being many years his junior, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul shared a familial bond with the man. She trained beneath him for years, but he always treated her as an equal rather than a child. Perhaps it stemmed solely from his ardent tie to her father and the League, but their mutual respect, trust and concern for one another looked exactly like the relationship between an older brother and sister.<p>

He rose to his feet and said, "And to you as well." Although he was pleased to see the woman, her appearance on this deck and side of the ship didn't bode well for his prisoner. "Do you need something?"

"Yes. Would you please debrief Sara? She should return in an hour and I'd like you to be the one to speak with her."

Confused, he replied, "I'm not sure that I understand. Why must I do this? Would you not rather speak with her yourself?" He had an inkling as to what her response might be.

"Please just do it," Nyssa all but begged the man. Conflicting emotions of resentment toward Sara and unwavering devotion crippled her at times. This was one of those times. Coincidentally, she needed Cain to be far away from Felicity's quarters.

"Nyssa," Cain responded in a somewhat commanding tone, "We've spoken about the dangers of vulnerability when it comes to Sara. You can't allow her to—"

"No lectures!" Nyssa cut him off. "I can't bear a lecture. I just need a reprieve."

He gently squeezed her shoulder at her downtrodden response. While he hated seeing her suffer, he also feared Nyssa's reaction to this altered "relationship" between her and Sara. Although she was trained as a calculated killer with the blood of the father of all assassins running through her veins, Sara allowed her to thrive as a human being, who lived and loved like any other. When Sara disappeared without a word, hateful tendencies emerged and many men died by her arrows. Her father wasn't one to temper an appetite for violence. Cain was her only link to her humanity as was the fragile hope that Sara would return.

When Nyssa left to fulfill her father's wish to hold Sara to her oath, Cain prayed they would make peace, return home and continue their life together. Much to his dismay a week later, his heartbroken little sister stumbled into his room in Nanda Parbat in tears. He thought for sure that Sara had refused to comply, leaving Nyssa no choice but to run her through with a dagger. As she draped herself across his lap in tears, his heart broke for her. No one should have to hurt those they love in order to be happy. After a few minutes, she had found her tongue when the tears subsided and she explained that she released Sara from her oath. His response wasn't as gentle as it should have been. A fight ensued as he condemned her decision on the basis of emotional trauma and lack of foresight.

Now Sara was back and he anxiously awaited new developments every day. He took pity on Nyssa and assured her, "I'll take care of it, my dear." Fighting the urge to ask about Felicity, he instead suggested, "At least consider what you know I wish to say about Sara."

She nodded, "I will. Thank you, brother." She kept a weak smile intact as he walked down the corridor. When he closed a door behind him, a shade of harsh determination overshadowed the small sign of happiness. She swung open the door on her right and declared, "We have time to ourselves at last, Felicity."

Taken aback by the woman's presence, the seated blonde didn't know whether to remain sitting or jump to her feet at attention. For a few seconds, she awkwardly planted her palms on the cot and pushed herself slightly off the bed before dropping back down. When the raven haired assassin let out a scoff, the blonde immediately hopped to her feet. She didn't want this woman looking down on her either literally or figuratively. She answered, "I've certainly been looking forward to it."

"I'm glad your situation hasn't dampened your spirits."

"The cold, drafty atmosphere has done its job at dampening everything else," Felicity replied cleverly.

Pleased at the lack of weakness and strong presence of wit and will, Nyssa paced back and forth in front of the blonde and noted, "My apologies for the marked lack of comfort. If it is any consolation, every deck of this ship is cold and drafty."

"I guess that counts as a small comfort in this very shitty circumstance."

"That is another thing I feel compelled to apologize for."

"Is it? I've gotta say I might have forgiven you if I was at home right now," she tempered her sneer. "Ya know, not still on this ship after being told I could leave."

Chuckling, Nyssa responded, "Does Cain put up with this backtalk?"

"He somehow manages to."

The assassin delicately traced the hilt of the dagger on her thigh and warned, "My brother has always possessed a considerable amount of patience."

Although Nyssa's sudden enthrallment with her weapon didn't escape her notice, Felicity forced a laugh, "Ha! That depends on your definition of _considerable_."

Glaring at the blonde, the other woman whispered warningly, "More than I do."

"Okie dokie. Gotcha. Acknowledged. I understand. Yup…"

Amused by her prisoner's verbal tumble, Nyssa said, "I'm sure you have many questions. I'm willing to offer answers in return for your help."

"My help?" Felicity queried. "What could you possibly need from me?"

Taking her fingers from her blade, she explained, "I understand you possess a talent for existing in places you do not belong. You extract information, plant information and manipulate information."

Not liking where this was headed, Felicity acknowledged, "I'm definitely decent at it."

"Don't be so modest," Nyssa said. "I'm giving you the chance to put your skills to use."

"Oh boy," the blonde couldn't restrain herself, "I really don't want to work for you, like at all- not at all."

With a smirk, the raven haired woman replied, "I'm afraid that you have no choice. You will do this for you and for Sara. This will hardly benefit me.

Shrugging, Felicity admitted begrudgingly, "I guess you have a captive audience. "

Nyssa carefully explained, "I need you to make it appear that you arrived in Starling City and are in fact going about your life as you typically would."

"So instead of faking my death, I'm faking my life," the blonde almost chuckled at her own comment.

Not so amused, the assassin lowered and steadied her voice, "You are very much alive and will remain so if both you and Sara cooperate."

"Whoa," Felicity caught the full force of the words and declared, "My life was just threatened in a soft, casual manner. That's not at all disconcerting."

"I do not want any harm to come to you. However, my father is much less concerned about the wellbeing of others and prefers to focus on performance and outcomes."

Raising her two pointer fingers and drumming them in Nyssa's direction, the blonde asked, "So you want me to see you as the good guy in this particular situation?"

Near the edge of her patience, the other woman replied, "I honestly do not care what opinion you have of me, but you seem the type to be driven by some sort of positive outlook. In this case, the only positive existing in this moment is that I will not hurt you if you do as I ask."

Although it turned her stomach, Felicity realized arguing and resisting would only result in a shit ton of pain. She sighed as she thought aloud, "I'm going to need access to state and local security in whatever airports I 'visited'." She air quoted the last word with her fingers. "I'm also assuming you don't want anyone to find out about my goings on. What kind of encryption will I be working with? Also, it's going to take a while to hack into all the lovely places I need to get to if I don't have a lot of horsepower—I mean—it's not like car horsepower. I just like to call it horsepower. I actually mean that I need—"

"You can have whatever you require," Nyssa cut her short. She couldn't listen to the girl ramble for another second. "I'll have you escorted to our small mainframe. Determine what you need and you'll have it within two hours."

"Damn, that's fast. I thought overnight shipping was fast."

"You have less than eight hours."

"What now?" Felicity raised her eyebrows and yelped, "No freakin' way. I have to get into the—"

"You don't need to fool any government agencies! You only need to fool Sara," Nyssa pointed out.

"Oh," the blonde nodded, "I see. She doesn't know I'm still here and you want to make sure that if she snoops, she finds me all safe and sound at home."

"Precisely."

"Well that makes this much easier. Sara can't do much except for find some security footage and maybe see if my passport was swiped." She would have no problem convincing Sara. While the logical, technical side of her formed a bullet point task list, she couldn't help but float the idea of leaving a sign that might point to the truth of her location.

Before a concrete idea could set between her ears, her captor interjected, "I hope you're not considering warning her in some way."

Felicity never had been good at lying. Her eyes bugged out and head wagged back and forth, "Nope. No. What? No."

Nyssa stepped forward and snarled inches from the blonde's face, "Although I have no strong desire to hurt you, I will if you do anything other than what I'm asking you to do." She leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Fool Sara."

The warm breath against Felicity's ear sent chills down her spine. _This is one scary ass woman_. When the assassin backed away, she gave a weak salute and said, "Whatever you say ma'am."

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><p><em>I'm attempting to keep the past and present as balanced as possible. Although they may not line up as cleanly as the show's flashbacks, I'm hoping both stories unfold the characters at a decent pace. Let me know if you feel that it's too hard to follow or doesn't flow well.<em>


	8. Dinner

_Someone mentioned "more fluff" in a review. Ask and you shall receive. Pure flashback fluff! _

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><p>"Why do I feel so weird?" Felicity grumbled to herself as she drummed her fingers on the table. After a week, she and Sara finally scheduled their friendly dinner. Overwhelmed by nerves, the blonde misjudged the amount of time it took to drive to the restaurant and arrived fifteen minutes early. She knew from experience that Sara would be late. "Of course she will," she assured herself under her breath. "I need to stop talking to myself. Like now."<p>

A waiter stopped by the table and asked, "Are you waiting for someone or—"

"Water," the blonde snapped. Glancing up at the surprised man, she apologized, "Sorry. I thought you were going to take my drink order so I blurted _water_." She hesitantly continued, "Can I… have a glass of water? Please?"

Chuckling, the waiter replied, "You look like you need something with alcohol."

"Why?!" Felicity gasped, "Do I look nervous or something? I feel kinda hot? Do I look hot? Or sweaty? Is it a million degrees in here or is it just me?"

"It's just you," Sara's voice answered from over her shoulder as the amused waiter walked away.

Felicity nearly jumped out of her chair, "Holy shit!"

Fully prepared to figure out where she and Felicity stood, Sara grazed a hand on her shoulder as she took her seat across the table. She said with a smile, "You shouldn't sit with your back to a room."

Really wishing she had that glass of water, she replied with a dry throat, "I'm realizing that right about now."

"You don't want people sneaking up on you," Sara continued as she unzipped her jacket and slid the leather off her shoulders. She tried not to grin triumphantly as Felicity's jaw dropped at the sight of the plunging neckline of the tight deep red satin shirt.

True to form, Felicity declared, "Wow. You look great!" Then she stammered, "Your _shirt_ looks great. Your taste in clothes is great. Where ever did you get that?"

Admiring the flustered blonde's equally tight and revealing black halter top, Sara commented, "I like your shirt too, Felicity."

Thumbing at the fabric on her chest, Felicity responded, "Oh this old thing…" She couldn't follow through with any made up story so she admitted, "I definitely went and bought this a few hours ago. It took me forever to pick it out. I'm normally an in-and-out shopper but, holy crap, I couldn't make a decision."

Although she did plan on granting the fumbling girl mercy, Sara made one remark, "You're very cute."

"And you're very good at making me nervous. Why is that?"

"Assassins make everyone nervous."

"Well, I didn't learn that from the internet."

"You're making progress."

"And what can I get you to drink," the waiter addressed Sara when returned with Felicity's water, which she gulped down as if she'd never seen water in her life. Far too amused by her companion to even glance at the man, Sara answered, "Water for me too please. And," she commented before he could walk away, "She'll need another water."

With a nod and small smile, he strutted away as Felicity came up for air after finishing three quarters of the glass, "This is the best water I've had in my life." She gestured toward the glass. "Although Smart Water is pretty damn good. It's got this sweet taste. It actually doesn't come from the ground. It's vapor distilled- I think that's what it says on the bottle. Regardless of it coming from the clouds, I think it's the electrolytes that make it taste good. I'm not sure. I'll have to look into that." Instead of responding in her typical brief fashion, Sara remained silent and simply smiled. Darting her eyes from side to side, Felicity attempted to nudge her missing glasses. While Sara stifled a chuckle, Felicity inquired, "So is this going to be me just talking at you the whole time?"

"I'm trying to think of something to say that won't make you uncomfortable."

"Silence is deafening."

"So why don't you talk while I look over the menu," Sara suggested as she scanned the book size menu.

Biting her lower lip in thought, the other blonde asked, "How do you know that I don't need to look at the menu?"

Eyes trained on the pages, the assassin noted, "It's probably the first thing you did. It kept you occupied for a couple of minutes." She glanced up, "Am I right?"

"Yes. You are."

"So. You pick the topic. I promise to answer with more than one word."

As Sara spoke briefly, Felicity found herself momentarily distracted by the adorable dimple in the woman's chin. Of course, this wasn't the first time she'd been mesmerized by her freckled chin. However, this was the first time she paused to ask herself what that meant, if it meant anything at all.

The answer came to her all too quickly and she couldn't help but blurt, "I have a question! I'm pretty sure I'm going to regret it." She drummed her fingers against her glass of water and added, "But a girl's gotta know. Ya know?"

"No, I don't know," Sara replied. She prepared for whatever question Felicity feared to ask. Attempting to put her at ease, she slowly moved her hand across the table and brushed a finger against the back of Felicity's hand. She half expected Felicity to jolt at her touch and overturn the glass of water she was nervously caressing. "What's a girl gotta know?" she asked cheerfully as she traced her thumb up and down Felicity's fingers.

Not at all phased by the contact because of her racing thoughts, Felicity asked, "Do you find me annoying or boring or simply entertaining? Do you like me?" Felicity plunged forward spouting more description that she should have, "Do you like me as in do you want to see me naked and touch me or do you want to bake cookies and not touch me?" Felicity felt a wave of nausea wash over her. _What the hell did I just say?_ "Not that those are the only two options when it comes to liking someone."

Sara's pupils dilated at the very mention of her hands on the blonde's pale body. She knew her answer, but she wasn't sure if Felicity truly wanted to hear it. Swallowing the lust tearing at her every nerve, she huskily assured the woman, "I don't want to bake cookies with you."

Blood rushed to Felicity's cheeks as heat flared through her body. Her pulse quickened. Her eyes darted between Sara's two enlarged pupils. She barely heard the waiter as he approached from behind her. She glanced down at her menu and closed her eyes for a moment as she took a long breath. Her senses seemed to heighten and nothing escaped her notice.

"Fuck it," she mumbled. She stood abruptly, snagged Sara by the wrist and jerked her from the chair toward the hallway to the restrooms. In the process, she tipped over her glass of water, shoved their waiter aside and nearly toppled an entire platter of food onto the floor. She heard Sara apologize to the two wait staff they'd nearly plowed over.

Felicity stopped when they disappeared from everyone's view and Sara asked, "What the hell is going on?" She spun the clambering IT nerd to face her. Felicity's teeth held her own lower lip prisoner, her eyes were blackened with carnal desire and her cheeks still wore a pinkish tint.

"Do you want to touch me?" Felicity asked between ragged breaths.

Sara gasped at the question, but not out of shocking distaste. On the contrary, the abrupt query punched her in the stomach and her own desire flew forth in the form of a gasp. Her eyes studied Felicity's neck and shoulders and she breathed as a warning, "Felicity? We're in the middle of a—"

The other blonde shoved Sara against a dark red wall and repeated only inches from her face, "Do you want to touch me?" Without waiting for a response, she grabbed Sara's hands and shoved them under her shirt. Her breath caught in her throat and her skin tingled as the assassin's cold fingers trailed up her abs. Before their fingers touched the bottom of her bra, Felicity released her grip and pulled her hands out from under her own shirt leaving Sara to explore her body or flee the scene. Sara stared open mouthed at the woman's chest as if she could see what lay beneath the clothing. Felicity's eyes shut as Sara's fingers crept beneath the lacy black material.

"Felicity!" Sara snapped her fingers in Felicity's face from the other side of the table.

"What? What?" the IT nerd yelped as reality jerked her from the fantasy. "What did I do?" Both of her hands leapt into her lap and squeezed one another. Her hands felt as if they'd just done something terribly wrong.

With a small laugh, the other blonde answered, "You didn't do anything except you're kinda taking a while to tell the guy what you'd like to eat." She grinned as Felicity's head bounced back and forth between the waiter and her dinner companion. "I thought you already knew what you wanted."

"Oh, oh, oh!" Felicity's voice rose with every word, "I do know what I want." As she fumbled over her order, she mentally tried to pull herself together. She quickly told the waiter her order and practically slammed the thick menu into his chest. She caught sight of Sara's surprised look at her sudden aggressiveness and apologized to the man, "Sorry. Sorry. I'm just a bit excited about food. Really fucking excited."

As the waiter shuffled away in astonishment, Sara asked with a snort, "Do you always curse when you talk to people you don't know?"

"Shit," the blonde dropped her head into her awaiting open hands. "I did curse didn't I?"

With a laugh, the assassin took a sip of her water and responded, "Yeah, you really did. I didn't know that food excited you to the point of breaking the rules of social etiquette."

Felicity glanced up to throw the woman a disapproving look. However, she couldn't hide the small smile below her unamused eyes. "Shut up."

The incredibly cute grin taking over Felicity's face put Sara at ease. Felicity seemed to have calmed down considerably since she had first arrived. In truth, she had thought the poor girl might throw up from nervousness. Oddly enough, the Felicity's probing and probably embarrassing inquiry as to Sara's intentions had fizzled into nothing but left the girls feeling more comfortable with one another.

Unbeknownst to Sara, Felicity so strongly longed for a deeper level of intimacy that she'd slipped from reality and her imagination had teased her with visions of a lustful encounter. Of course, Sara had been nursing a crush on Felicity for weeks so intrusive thoughts of a less clothed Felicity frequently darted through her mind. However, an innocent desire for a deeper connection intertwined itself with those thoughts. Sara both wanted her and wanted to know her. Every time they spoke or their eyes met, she prayed the woman felt the same.

"Can I still choose a topic?" Felicity asked circling back to a previous and less awkward point in their conversation.

"Be my guest."

Tapping her chin with her pointer finger, Felicity started with, "How are you and Laurel? I remember running out on what I assumed was about to be a Lance family fight."

"Wow," Sara cleared her throat. "You jump right to very personal things."

Felicity reminded the woman with a head nod, "Well I already know everything else- all the 'get to know you' type of stuff."

"From the internet," Sara sighed.

Keeping an eye on Sara for any sign of discomfort or disapproval, the other woman confirmed with a smirk, "From the internet."

The assassin swallowed hard before answering. Although a bit afraid, she wanted to open up to Felicity. She sometimes found it odd that she could kill men with ease, but could barely hold a personal conversation. With a deep breath, she replied, "We're doing okay. We can have civil conversations."

"Are you gonna tell her about the whole assassin thing? Or the island?" Felicity asked without thinking. She quickly said, "I'm sorry. I should know better than to bring up those years. Oliver gets super quiet and stoic and wears that mushed mouth face."

"You mean when he mashes his lips together and they get all flat?" Sara asked dodging her own reaction to turn quiet and stoic.

"Yeah, that face."

She forced a smile and observed, "I think that's just his face."

Felicity let out a small chuckle but said nothing in return. She wasn't quite sure how to recover from her mistake. Fortunately, the assassin silently resolved to begin using more than a few sentences when speaking with Felicity. She plucked at the edge of a still rolled up napkin on the table and said quietly, "I don't know if I can tell her about those things. I've never actually told anyone details about those things. The only people that know are those who were actually there while things were happening."

"You really don't have to say anything. I'm a motor mouth who just says whatever comes to mind. I'm far too inquisitive for my own good. I really, really should think before I speak."

"A beautiful girl can get away with murder," Sara teased. She had no desire for this exchange to tank into a bog of stern conversation.

"I guess you would know," Felicity replied. "Shit!" she snapped at herself realizing how very unfunny Sara might find her quip.

"Chill out, Felicity. I promise not to get too serious with you. I can take a joke."

"Well, I haven't had much experience with you so—"

"I'd be happy to fix that." Sara smiled when Felicity blushed at her offer. The two of them continued on in various degrees of flirtation. Both were pleased at how easy it was to talk with one another. After their food arrived, the conversation flowed naturally from jokes about Oliver's constant shirtless workouts to favorite movies and types of music. Not surprisingly, Sara was a bit behind the times.

"We don't have iTunes or HBO in Nanda Parbat," the assassin defended herself as Felicity laughed at her complete lack of musical and television knowledge.

"We need to fix this situation, pronto," her phone ringing in her purse caught her attention. As she yanked it out, she mouthed "sorry" to Sara when she saw Oliver's name flashing on the screen. "What is it, Oliver?" her greeting was a bit more annoyed than she planned. Sara smiled at her tone as she listened to Felicity's side of the conversation.

"Well, I can't right now because—because I'm busy." She rolled her eyes and continued, "I do have a life sometimes. From what you're saying, the world-saving can wait." She flashed a small smile at Sara when she replied after a pause, "What I'm doing is important too." Felicity was once again entranced by the freckles and the chin and finally said, "Look. I'll call you in a little bit… a 'little bit' is about as long as 'a while'… goodbye, Mr. Queen." She disconnected the call with a click.

"Well then," Sara noted with a smirk. "That's quite a way to treat your boss."

"Technically, it's after hours."

"Ya know," Sara said. "When I showed up the first time, I thought that you liked Oliver."

"_Like like_ him?" Felicity said the word twice to enhance the meaning.

"Yes. Like like."

Felicity waved off the comment, "I don't like Oliver. I actually think I like yo—ga!" She ended the word abruptly.

"You like like yoga?" Sara didn't believe it for a moment, but enjoyed watching the girl squirm.

The uncomfortable blonde shoved bits of food in her mouth and emphasized, "I love _love_ yoga!"

"I didn't know you did yoga."

_Shit_. "Oh, I don't. I just like watching it and the idea of doing it. Everyone is so bendy and quiet. I don't think I'm a prime candidate for those two reasons." Her deflection from her verbal misstep had as many holes as a cheese grater.

"You're not bendy?" Sara continued to tease.

"Or quiet."

Sara's phone buzzed in her pocket. "I think I know who this is," she said aloud to a frazzled Felicity. When she read the text, she glanced up and said, "We need to go."

Never so happy to have a dinner interrupted, Felicity flagged down the waiter across the room and yelled, "Check please!"

"Leave it to Oliver to ruin something," groaned Sara.

"I guess you know from experience?"

With a chuckle, Sara said, "I think he and I both know from experience."

"Cuz you're both such horrible people and everything."

"And yet you like… yoga," Sara said. Felicity merely smirked in response and Sara continued, "Don't worry; we can _not_ bake cookies together soon."

"What? What? I—what now?" Felicity stuttered.

"Don't worry. I'm a horrible cook anyway. We can find something else to do."

As Sara's eyes glistened with humor, Felicity fought the animalistic urge to turn her fantasy into reality. However, she didn't know if Sara was merely flirting with her in jest or actually meant what she said. Along the same vein, she didn't know if Sara knew that she wasn't joking and she did mean what she said. With those two unknowns floating around, she didn't dare act on impulse. Instead, she simply said, "Yeah. We'll find something to do."

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><p><em>I hope you enjoyed the little break from captivity! Let me know what you think.<em>


	9. Kisses

_Hey guys. I'm sorry for the long delay. Instead of finishing what I planned for this chapter, I'll post what I have so far. I hope it's enough to appease you! Thanks to all who reviewed and hello to all new followers. It's very encouraging to know people are reading and enjoying._

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><p>Sara paced back and forth across the creaky wooden floor boards. With arms tucked tightly across her chest, she complained aloud, "Why am I still on this dump of a ship?" She stopped to peer out a dirty window at the small rippling waves. She hated boats. Two of the most traumatic experiences of her life related to boats. "I want to get the fuck off of this boat." Her annoyance with her location was amplified by the fact that she just cracked a man's neck in his study. It had been a clean and quiet kill. She slipped in and out like a ghost.<p>

She glanced over her shoulder at the mask, wig and batons she had tossed on the table in the middle of the room. Aside from concealing her identity from the helicopter pilot, the abandoned objects had been completely unnecessary. Before sneaking onto the grounds, she triggered a five minute feed loop for all of the cameras. Not a single guard caught sight of her. Even without the mask, revealing herself to her victim would have been a moot point. After all, he was dead. The dead man could have kept her secret.

Cain burst in the door without warning and plopped into a nearby chair. In his typical gruff manner, he flung up one leg and propped his right ankle on his left knee. He scratched at the thick hair around his mouth and stared solemnly at Sara. He waited for her to speak. He didn't have to wait long.

"Where is Nyssa?"

His eyes never leaving Sara, he replied, "I do not keep track of her movements."

The blonde assumed Nyssa would conduct the standard debriefing herself. When she said as much to the man with slight brown skin tainted by years of sun exposure, he remained silent. She clenched her jaw. She abhorred his habit of refusing to dignify her with a response. Of all the assassins, Cain was the most unpredictable. While sometimes he offered words of counsel, he just as often basically ignored her existence. "Cain?"

"Did you complete the task?"

"Yes. He is dead." She continued on giving him details of her infiltration, kill and exit. Without moving, he listened intently as she spoke. When she finished, he rose to his feet and nodded in her direction.

Before he took a step toward the door, Sara stepped forward and attempted to drag the answer to her original query from him. She prompted to get his attention, "Cain?"

"Yes, Canary?"

"Do you have anything else to say?"

With a deliberate shake of his head, he answered in the negative, "No. I have all of the necessary information. This interview is over."

Not satisfied with his response, she closed the distance between them refusing to back down. She asked again, "Why is Nyssa not here?"

"I assume something else came to her attention." He added with an air of superiority, "Despite what you may think, you are no longer a priority to her."

Crossing her arms with a smirk, she asked, "How long have you been waiting to say that?" She imagined that the man Nyssa thought of as a brother had more unpleasant things to say.

He raised an eyebrow, "It is not something I have been longing to say."

"Then what is?" Sara pressured.

He loomed over the small blonde as he growled and puffed out his chest, "I will not be subject to an interrogation by a traitor."

"You _have_ been wanting to say that," she hardened her features signaling her utter lack of uneasiness with his proximity.

"Nyssa may have treated you with clemency, but your selfish behavior deserves the final punishment of release," he stated emphatically.

Although she refused to waiver by backing away, her voice softened as she replied, "I never meant to hurt her."

He inexplicably slipped from a disgusted and dedicated assassin to a concerned mentor and explained, "I thought I trained you better." His sudden change of tone startled Sara, but she listened intently as he continued, "One selfish action only leads to another and ultimately compounds the number of casualties."

"Which 'selfish action' are you referring to?"

"You went to Starling City."

"They're my family, Cain!" Sara boomed in frustration. "I had no choice!"

"But you did!" Cain returned with a similar amount of fervor. "We all _had_ families! Don't deceive yourself into thinking you are the only one of us tempted to return to them."

"I _have_ a family, not _had_," Sara clarified. She defensively queried with a hint of interest, "You wouldn't save yours if they needed you— if they truly needed you?"

Although razors, which had dulled from many years of rust, scratched at his heart, he held his head high and answered without hesitation, "As painful as it may be, I am responsible to those in my present life, not to those who belong in the past."

Lips pursed, the blonde assassin defiantly disagreed, "I will never accept that."

The man paused as he decided on how to proceed. He finally spoke, "Perhaps you should start a list of those who fall victim to your need to save those in the past rather than live in the present."

Blood boiling, Sara seethed, "Excuse me?" His suggestion of harm coming to those she cared about threw her into a fury she could only control from years of training.

He counted on his fingers and he said, "Your sister, your mother, your father, Nyssa, Felicity—"

"Don't you dare."

Assuming the name of her girlfriend infuriated her, he pointed out, "You brought pain on yourself, her and Nyssa."

Sara snapped, "You're the one who took her! I know it was you!"

"It was. I felt responsible for your betrayal to the League. I contributed greatly to your training and Ra's al Ghul thought it fitting that I carry out the deed that would ultimately return you to us. I recommended that we execute you, but both Ra's al Ghul and his daughter deemed it unnecessary."

"And now I have nothing," Sara concluded with her mind still fixed on Felicity.

Cain clarified, "You had the daughter of Ra's al Ghul and a loyal family."

Glancing up and the man, Sara asked, "You will never forgive me for hurting her, will you?" His unwavering concern for her ex-girlfriend never ceased to amaze her.

He confirmed, "No. I do not believe in forgiveness for those who do not deserve it."

"Then we're on the same page," Sara replied referencing his kidnap and treatment of Felicity.

Bored of the conversation, Cain said before exiting the room, "One more thing. Do not attempt to rekindle your relationship with Nyssa. Leave her be." His voice softened a bit as he spoke his sister's name.

Surprised by his lack of faith in her humanity, she snipped, "You don't think much of me do you?" Did he truly believe she wanted to hurt Nyssa?

"Not anymore."

Replying confidently to appease him, she conceded, "Fine then. Is Felicity safe?"

"I took care of her myself," he answered honestly. Fortunately, he had no trouble lying to others.

"Thank you," she couldn't hide a slight smile of gratitude.

He quickly clarified, "I did it for her, not you. She was an innocent."

"Still, thank you."

Despite the sincerity in her voice, he felt no need to respond. He simply charged out of the room leaving Sara to wonder where her girlfriend—ex girlfriend—was and what she was doing.

* * *

><p>"Are you sure you don't need any help?" Sara politely asked Felicity. While Felicity pecked on the keyboards and clicked the mice furiously at the three monitor computer desk, the other blonde insisted on distracting her. She was bent over the table propped up on her forearms with her enticing assets pouring out of her low cut top.<p>

"No!" Felicity snapped with a feigned annoyance. She struggled to keep her gaze from drifting to the smirking assassin. She strained her mouth to mute her smile. The two women had slipped into a comfortable state of verbal flirtation over the past couple of weeks. The dinner had clenched their mutual attraction, but failed to cement any type of established or even admitted relationship. That was perfectly fine with both of them. Although unknown to the other, they both preferred a slow organic build rather than a dive into chilly, uncharted waters.

"Are you really sure?" the woman repeated in her irresistible sultry tone.

Finally allowing herself to look at her tormentor, Felicity turned with eyes fixed on the amused face. "I'm totally fine here. Why don't you go shoot arrows or something? Push-ups? Pull ups? Bow staff swinging? Beat on Oliver?" She raised her voice with the last suggestion hoping the man in question would hear her.

He did. "Hey now. She can _try_ to beat on me." He stood on the other side of the room scrutinizing his new shipment of arrows.

"Don't tempt me," Sara threw a playful warning Oliver's way. "I'd have to pull my punches to avoid bruising that pretty face of yours."

"I could say the same to you."

With her gaze accidentally drifting south from Sara's blue eyes, she muttered so only Sara could hear, "Exactly how pretty do you think his face is? On a scale of kinda pretty to hot, hot, _hot_ pretty. And yes," she clarified, "that is a newly introduced scale."

Taking advantage of the opportunity to tease her, Sara replied thoughtfully, "Well, I was kind of involved with him for a while. I'd be lying if I didn't rank him fairly high."

Eyes jerking up from the tantalizing cleavage, Felicity snapped in a whisper, "That is an incorrect answer." Her smile offset any hint of anger, but didn't negate the whiff of jealousy.

Raising an eyebrow, Sara queried, "So you don't find him pretty?"

Felicity parted her lips breaking her frown to say, "That's not the point. I clearly set that up so you could adoringly—"

"Adoringly?"

"Adoringly say," she cleared her throat and spoke in an obnoxiously sweet tone, "'Oh, he's not pretty at all, Felicity. I don't know what I was thinking when I ran off with him while he was dating my sister.'"

Amused by the imitation, the assassin clarified, "My voice is not that high pitched."

"Not the point."

Unable to contain the grin brought on by Felicity's exaggerated frustration, Sara said, "Has anyone told you how awfully cute you are when you're jealous?"

"Me, jealous?" the blonde waved off the suggestion and pushed her glasses up higher on her nose. She returned her attention to the monitors and continued, "Pfffttt no. This is my concentration face." Her eyes darted to Sara's chest as the woman straightened up and consequently ruined the view that had been happily distracting the IT girl. "I wear this face when I concentrate on things."

"On computers or my shirt?" Sara chuckled.

Snapping her gaze back to the screens, Felicity replied, "I'm just thinking."

"About?" the other woman prompted.

Without looking up, the blonde smirked and said, "Give me the correct answer to the pretty face question and I'll tell you."

Intrigued, Sara paraphrased Felicity's earlier statement, "No, he's not pretty. I don't know what I was thinking blah blah whatever else you said."

Donning an unfamiliar sultry tone, Felicity stood and whispered in the assassin's ear, "I'm thinking about what's in your shirt." While Sara unconsciously bit her bottom lip, Felicity kicked herself for her inability to craft something a bit more seductive. She wasn't very good at this.

"Miss Smoak!" Sara gasped. That was definitely the most forward thing Felicity had ever said to her. She liked it.

The other blonde's reaction banished Felicity's insecurities and she teased, "Is that a problem?"

Noticing that Felicity's glasses had managed to slide back down her nose, Sara gently nudged them back in place with one finger and replied, "Nope. Think away."

"Sara!" Oliver called out, "Come over here and help me test some of these." He twirled an arrow in his hand. "I got a bad batch a few weeks ago."

While Felicity struggled to think of some excuse for Sara to stay put, the assassin responded, "Alright but why can't you test them yourself?" Brushing past the now pouting blonde, Sara offered a small compliment, "Your hair looks really pretty when it's down." In Sara's experience, nothing heightened tension more than a sudden interruption and rapid deflation. She was already looking forward to their next conversation.

Oliver answered as she drew closer, "If you can hit something, then I'll know they're good quality."

"Hey!" she snatched up his bow and swatted him in the shoulder. "You were almost killed by the woman who trained me."

Blocking the woman's second swing, the Arrow laughed, "I keep forgetting." Something over Sara's shoulder caught his attention. When he recognized the intruder, he said, "Ba—" He truncated the word as the man motioned for silence. As the man crept quietly toward the blonde at the computer desk, Oliver smiled and asked Sara, "So are you going to help me out?"

Watching as the unknown man walked closer to Felicity, the woman replied, "Yeah sure. Who is that guy?"

Before Oliver could answer, Felicity heard a footstep and felt a light tap on her shoulder. She grabbed a keyboard, jumped up and swung the 'weapon' at the aggressor. When she recognized the man who easily dodged the keyboard, she yelped, "Holy shit! Barry!"

"Hello to you too," he replied with amusement. "That's not the welcome I was expecting."

Flooded with relief at the sight of him walking and talking, she threw her arms around his neck and exclaimed, "I thought you were in a coma or dead or something."

Squeezing her tightly before releasing her from the hug, Barry chuckled, "Well, I am something."

"Alive," Felicity commented with a smile. As Barry leaned back against the table, she sank down into her chair and rolled it directly in front of him. He was alive. He was healthy. He was here. It was a lot to process. The blonde assassin behind her momentarily drifted from her thoughts. After all, she and Barry had left things unfinished. Actually, things were left completely open ended.

"Yeah, I'm alive," he confirmed. He smiled gently and said, "A nurse told me that you visited a few times."

"Of course I did," she assured him. She followed up jokingly, "Much to Oliver's dismay."

"He didn't approve?" A look of discomfort clouded his features as he asked hesitantly, "Are you two—"

"No, no," Felicity hopped from the chair and shook her head violently. "He's just a little needy."

On the other side of the room, Sara unsuccessfully tried to ignore the exchange. Fiddling with an arrow, she asked Oliver, "Who the hell is that guy?" By the body language, she had a pretty good idea.

Carefully adjusting the arrowhead on the shaft, he explained, "That's Barry. It's a bit of long story, but he and Felicity were headed toward…" he glanced over at the pair and then continued, "toward something until he—"

"Yeah, don't care," Sara cut him short. That was not the answer she wanted to hear. "Let's test these." She snatched up his bow, fit the arrow on the string, pulled back, aimed and released. Ollie didn't have any time to witness the shot before an arrow pierced the center of a target.

Impressed, he said, "So far, so good."

"What brings you to Starling?" Felicity asked the grinning man.

"You do."

A bit flustered, the blonde stumbled, "Me? I? I do? I bring you here?"

"Are you embarrassed?" he asked as red spread across her cheeks.

Floundering in her own thoughts she could only manage, "No, no, no—"

He saved her from herself and said, "I woke up and remembered that I hinted at a date. I decided asking you again in person might be a better tactic."

Still uneasy, but enjoying the flattery, Felicity asked, "You woke up from a coma, thought about a date and then came here?"

"Well," he admitted, "I do have some… interesting information for Oliver, but yes. It's hard to forget a pretty girl even after you've been in a coma."

Slightly more comfortable with the flattery, she teased, "It appears that your 'better tactic' includes being direct, which is a bit different from before."

He glanced at his shoes and smirked, "Indirect didn't get me very far." He lifted his head and locked eyes with the blonde and whispered, "I also chickened out."

Confused, Felicity asked, "Chickened out wh—" Barry closed the distance between them and gently pressed his lips against hers. Her arms remained slack at her sides as she stood paralyzed. She wasn't even sure how much time passed before he stepped back. As her eyes slowly opened, she shuffled back toward the center of the desk while he remained smiling at the edge of it.

Felicity cleared her throat as her brain spun and she sputtered, "Oh, that. I umm..." An arrow flying past Barry's head and smashing into a toolbox snapped her to attention. She spun to her left to see a smug looking Sara holding a bow. "What the hell?" she yelled.

Sara shrugged nonchalantly, "Oops. I missed."

Pointing at the tall red toolbox with only six inches of an arrow protruding from the metal, Felicity scolded loudly, "It's a good thing I just moved that not-so-important toolbox right there or else you might have hit something breakable."

As Sara responded with another shrug, Oliver leaned over and mumbled in her ear, "What exactly were you aiming at?"

The assassin spoke up so all three shocked individuals could hear, "Like I said: I missed. Sorry if I interrupted something." The very flimsy apology thrown Barry and Felicity's direction prompted an eye roll from Felicity.

Barry took the event in stride and cheerfully replied, "I'm sure that toolbox had it coming. Maybe Oliver can give you a few pointers."

No one knew if the man was being sarcastic. Refusing to allow Sara any type of snarky response, Felicity noted, "She's actually a good shot. Aren't you?" She glared at the other woman. The coy smile that greeted her gaze threatened to strip away her irritation at Sara's dangerous display.

Barry spoke again to Sara, "Hi. Sorry, I didn't introduce myself."

"You're Barry."

"Oh," he started at Sara's interruption. He recovered, "You're ahead of me. And you are?"

"A girl having an off day."

Not interested in any further conversation with Barry, the assassin turned around and picked up another arrow. Clueless as to why Sara nearly took off the guy's head, Ollie mentioned, "Good thing you didn't hit anyone."

"Mhmm," Sara murmured as she ensured the arrowhead was tightly in place.

"What the hell was—"

Instead of replying, Sara quickly shot two arrows in a row at the same target she previously hit. When Oliver turned to see her handiwork, he groaned, "Dammit Sara. You ruined the arrows."

She smiled triumphantly at the arrows. Two carbon shafts were sliced in half with a third arrow sticking out in the center. Happily, she set the bow on the table and said, "I guess I'm not having an off day." Without glancing back at the happy 'couple', Sara pulled on her leather jacket dangling from a rack and strolled up the stairs. Thankfully, Oliver saw no point in yelling up at her or following her.

Before she rounded the corner from the hall into the club, she heard a shout that made her smile from behind her, "Hey you!" Felicity trotted forward in high heels and waved her hands while asking, "What was that? You almost took off Barry's ear!"

Not thrilled at her concern for the guy's random body part, Sara commented sarcastically, "He doesn't need an ear for you to make out with him." Her eyes combed Felicity's face for small facial cues following her petty claim.

The blonde's eyebrows pulled together as her mouth stretched across her face in shock. She blurted with a hint of disdain at Sara's childlike accusation, "Are you kidding me? You think shooting an arrow at someone's head—"

"_Near_ someone's head," Sara corrected.

"_Near_ someone's head is an okay way to express jealousy?" By the time Felicity finished her sentence, her hands gripped her hips tightly while her head wagged back and forth. She did not approve, not one little bit.

Despite the blonde's fervent insistence of her petulance, Sara smoothly replied, "Jealous of him? Really?"

Taken aback by the assassin's denial, Felicity said, "Umm. Yeah. That's the vibe I'm getting."

Although Felicity's words could not possibly be misconstrued as flirting, Sara decided to pick up where their previous conversation left off. Barry be damned. She slowly slid one foot in front of the other and replied to the frowning woman, "Then you're not very good at picking up vibes."

She halted a couple of feet away from Felicity, who scoffed, "Well then what was—" As one of Sara's hands latched to the back of her neck while the other yanked her forward by the hip, Felicity was interrupted yet again by a sudden kiss. However, this kiss was different. Instead of being in a state of shock for who knows how long when Barry kissed her, every second threw a new sensation her way. She could barely process the pleasure. Sara's nails raking through her hair shot sparks of beautiful pain down her spine. The woman's other hand tugged at the back of Felicity's shirt trying to pull the woman closer into her embrace.

Quickly identifying Felicity's glasses as a hindrance, Sara reluctantly parted their lips, yanked off the frames and shoved them into her back pocket. For a brief moment, both women drank in the sight of the other's face. The assassin broke the gaze first as she plunged forward claiming Felicity's lips between her own. Felicity's hands finally found a home clasping Sara's face. The heat from Sara's face transferred to her palms and down into her chest, which was already on fire. A small moan of contentment leaked out between their lips. As she basked in Sara's lips dancing against her own, she hungrily slid her tongue past the woman's teeth. She needed more. She ached to taste her as well as feel her.

The assassin eagerly greeted Felicity's tongue with her own. The frantic nature of the kiss melted into a yearning. Their mouths moved slower, their tongues dove deeper and their hips melded together. While Felicity's hands merely drifted down to the back of Sara's neck, Sara's hands settled on Felicity's lower back. She drank in every moment and soaked up every moan. As their kissing slowed to small pecks between wide grins, the assassin whispered, "I'm not jealous. I'm territorial." She pulled the glasses from her pocket and gently maneuvered them onto Felicity's face. After planting a kiss on the amusingly flustered blonde's nose, Sara released the girl from her grip and strode toward the exit.

Felicity stood with two fingers caressing her slightly raw mouth. "What just happened?"

* * *

><p><em>I was glad to <strong>finally <strong>get flashback Sara and Felicity together! I hope to have more written soon-ish. Thanks for reading!_


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